Our client, a 60-year-old woman, went to the hospital for outpatient surgical removal of a benign ovarian cyst. During surgery, however, doctors punctured her bladder. The condition was not diagnosed for nearly two days. The puncture led to a string of serious consequences, including a stroke that, when treated, led to: reduced blood flow to her extremities, the ultimate amputation of her right hand, the amputation of fingers on her left hand, the amputation of toes on her left foot, and the development of necrotizing fasciitis, an often fatal "flesh eating" bacterial infection that required nine surgical procedures in two weeks. We demonstrated to a Cook County jury that, while the inadvertent puncturing of the client's bladder did not violate medical care standards, failing to see it — both during the operation and later when she complained of pain and ultimately was rushed to the emergency room — constituted negligence. The jury awarded $19.4 million one day after a monthlong trial.
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