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Medical Malpractice Lawyers in East St. Louis

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Levin & Perconti is nationally recognized for its success in medical malpractice cases. Our East St. Louis medical malpractice lawyers have a deep understanding of Illinois law and are thoroughly experienced in holding negligent health care providers accountable.

We’re dedicated to getting justice for medical malpractice victims like you and securing the compensation you deserve. Contact us online or call (312) 332-2872 today for a free consultation.

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Why Choose Levin & Perconti for Your Medical Malpractice Case in East St. Louis, IL?

Since our founding in 1992, our firm has built a reputation for record-setting verdicts and settlements, recovering over $1 billion in compensation for our clients. Our team boasts over 400 years of combined legal experience, including managing partners Margaret Battersby-Black and Mike Bonamarte, who have handled numerous medical malpractice cases.

We’ve been recognized by Best Lawyers in America, Illinois Super Lawyers, Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s Illinois Top 100 Attorneys, and achieved a Tier 1 Law Firm ranking by U.S. News.

Our significant Illinois medical malpractice case results include:

$40M

Verdict on behalf of the now 19-year-old woman who suffered a severe and permanent brain injury during birth due to a delayed C-section delivery at Sarah Bush Lincoln Memorial Hospital.

$17.7M

Medical malpractice settlement for a former police officer who suffered a life-altering brain injury due to nursing staff negligence at a Chicago hospital.

$8.1M

Medical malpractice verdict on behalf of a family whose mother died of lung cancer in 2015 as a result of a failure to diagnose.

Is Medical Malpractice Common in East St. Louis?

The frequency of medical malpractice cases in Illinois has trended upward over time. The number of adverse action reports against health care providers jumped from 847 in 2020 to a peak of 1,592 in 2022, and fell to 1,510 in 2023—the last year of complete data. Similarly, paid medical malpractice claims rose from 290 in 2020 to a peak of 473 in 2023.

Local Hospitals and Medical Centers Near East St. Louis, IL

Thanks to its proximity to St. Louis, Missouri, East St. Louis is close to many of the larger city’s hospitals. Some nearby medical providers that don’t require crossing state lines include:

  • Touchette Regional Hospital
  • Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City
  • Memorial Hospital Belleville in Belleville

Statewide reporting shows increases in adverse-action reports and paid malpractice claims in recent years, so staying current on local context and trends is especially important.

  • Touchette Regional Hospital was previously involved in a $19 million medical malpractice case involving a birth injury
  • Earlier this year, the family of a suicidal man who was denied proper care while in crisis won a $1.1 million verdict against Gateway Regional Medical Center

Common Medical Malpractice Cases in East St. Louis

Medical negligence can happen in many forms and settings, often leading to serious injury or death for patients who trusted their healthcare providers. At Levin & Perconti, we handle a wide range of medical malpractice cases where healthcare providers fail to meet the expected standard of care, causing harm. We represent clients in various medical malpractice scenarios across Illinois.

Below are some of the most common types of medical malpractice claims we handle:

Anesthesiologist Error

Errors made during the administration of anesthesia can have severe consequences. These mistakes may include miscalculating the dosage of anesthesia, making intubation errors, or improperly monitoring a patient’s vital signs. Such errors can potentially lead to respiratory distress, brain damage, allergic reactions, or even death.

This occurs when a doctor incorrectly identifies a patient’s medical condition. It can result from inadequate medical histories, ignoring symptoms of serious conditions, or failing to order necessary tests. Misdiagnosis can lead to a lack of treatment, inappropriate or unnecessary treatments, and delayed intervention, potentially causing severe health complications. An estimated 12 million Americans experience a diagnostic error in primary care each year, and clinical misjudgment accounts for a significant percentage of these errors.

Cancer misdiagnosis is a specific and often devastating type of misdiagnosis. It represents a large portion of wrong diagnosis claims. Cases involve failure to properly read tests like Pap smears, leading to missed cervical cancer, or failure to biopsy tumors, delaying diagnosis and treatment.

Diagnosing heart attacks can be complex due to varied symptoms. Misdiagnosis can happen if symptoms are misinterpreted as less severe conditions like indigestion or anxiety, or if necessary tests like EKGs or blood tests are not conducted or are misread. Overlooking atypical symptoms in certain patient populations or failing to recognize silent heart attacks also contributes to these errors.

This involves a medical professional taking too long to identify a patient’s medical condition. The excessive delay in diagnosis can result in postponed treatment, reducing treatment options, and potentially leading to more severe health complications for the patient. Examples include delays in diagnosing conditions like lung cancer or postpartum issues based on ignored symptoms or test results.

A failure to diagnose occurs when a healthcare provider overlooks or misses a medical condition entirely. This lack of diagnosis means the patient does not receive the necessary treatment, which can have severe or fatal consequences. This can be caused by incomplete patient histories, neglecting symptoms, or failing to order appropriate diagnostic tests.

Healthcare providers are required to adequately inform patients about the potential benefits, risks, and alternatives of a medical procedure or treatment before proceeding. A lack of informed consent claim arises when a provider fails in this duty, and the patient suffers harm as a result of a procedure they did not fully understand or agree to.

These cases involve harm sustained by either the mother or the child during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after birth due to trauma or medical errors. Birth injuries can result from various mistakes, such as the improper use of birthing tools, failure to detect fetal distress, or delays in performing a necessary C-section. Common outcomes include brain injuries like cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injuries.

This broad category encompasses mistakes made by any medical professional, including doctors, nurses, technicians, and hospital staff, who fail to meet the standard of care. These errors can manifest in numerous ways, such as misdiagnoses, incorrect medication dosages, surgical mistakes, or failures in communication or charting. Overworked staff, inadequate training, or poor hospital protocols can contribute to these errors.

Errors in interpreting diagnostic imaging and test results are a significant cause of medical malpractice. A radiologist misreading an X-ray, a pathologist misinterpreting lab slides, or a technician misreading an ultrasound can lead to a missed or incorrect diagnosis of serious conditions like cancer or tumors, delaying critical treatment.

These claims involve injuries or death caused by defective medical devices. Defects can stem from the device’s design, manufacturing process, or marketing information. When commonly used devices like pacemakers or hip replacements malfunction, patients can suffer severe complications, leading to product liability claims against manufacturers or hospitals.

Healthcare Management Organizations (HMOs) or their affiliated doctors can be held liable for misconduct that leads to patient harm. This can include instances where an HMO doctor fails to diagnose a condition or disregards patient complaints, resulting in delayed or improper care and subsequent injury or death.

These preventable errors occur when healthcare professionals fail to follow best practices in prescribing, dispensing, or administering medications. Mistakes can include giving the wrong medication or dosage, administering it incorrectly, or overlooking dangerous drug interactions. Such errors can cause severe harm, including hospitalization, permanent injury, or death.

Medical negligence can result in severe and permanent spinal cord injuries. Cases may involve surgeons causing damage during procedures, or healthcare providers failing to recognize worsening neurological symptoms and delaying necessary intervention to relieve spinal cord compression. These injuries often lead to permanent disability or paralysis.

Residents in nursing homes can suffer harm due to the negligence or intentional acts of staff. This can include medication mismanagement, falls, neglect leading to infections like MRSA, or other failures to provide appropriate care based on the standard of care for vulnerable residents.

Mistakes made during surgery are preventable errors that can cause significant patient injury or death. These errors range from operating on the wrong site or patient to damaging nerves or organs, performing the incorrect procedure, or leaving foreign objects inside the body cavity.

Patients can acquire serious infections, such as Staph infections (like MRSA), while in a hospital or healthcare facility. If these infections are contracted or worsen due to negligent care, such as poor sanitation or failure to properly treat an existing infection, the hospital or staff may be liable for the resulting complications and harm.

Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) malpractice involves negligence in care related to women’s health, including pregnancy, labor, delivery, and gynecological procedures. Errors can range from mismanaging labor and delivery, leading to birth injuries, to failing to diagnose critical conditions during pregnancy or performing unnecessary surgical procedures.

How a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Proves Negligence

To show that a health care provider was negligent in an East St. Louis medical malpractice case, a lawyer must establish four specific elements:

  • Legal duty: A medical malpractice lawyer must establish that the health care provider owed a duty of care to the patient.
  • Breach of duty: The lawyer must show that the health care provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care, such as by acting unreasonably, carelessly, or outside of medical norms.
  • Causation: The lawyer must prove that the health care provider’s breach of their legal duty of care directly caused harm to the patient.
  • Damages: The attorney must show that the patient suffered compensable damages as a result of the health care provider’s breach of duty.

Expert Testimony

To connect the health care provider’s actions to the patient’s injuries, a medical malpractice lawyer must sometimes rely on testimony from a medical expert. The witness can help establish the acceptable standard of care, outline how the provider failed to meet it, and explain how that negligence caused harm to the victim.

Documentation and Evidence

Gathering relevant medical records, doctors’ notes, witness statements, written communications, and other documentation can help a medical malpractice attorney establish a health care provider’s breach of duty.

When you hire a medical malpractice attorney in East St. Louis, your case will follow a series of steps, including:

  • Consultation and case evaluation: Your lawyer will meet with you for free and analyze the circumstances of your case, determining whether you have a valid claim and explaining your legal options.
  • Investigation and expert opinions: Your attorney will begin gathering evidence to prove the health care provider’s negligence, including seeking expert testimony to help strengthen your case.
  • Filing a lawsuit: If the health care provider or their insurance company won’t pay you what you deserve, your attorney will file a lawsuit and bring your case to court.
  • Discovery and negotiations: The attorneys involved in the case will exchange evidence and information to prepare for trial. Settlement negotiations often occur during this step of the process.
  • Settlement or trial: Most personal injury cases settle before seeing the courtroom, but we’re not afraid to take your case to trial if necessary.

What Compensation Can You Recover in a Malpractice Lawsuit?

East St. Louis medical malpractice victims can recover both economic and non-economic damages through an injury lawsuit. Economic damages are monetary losses related to your injury, such as medical bills, future medical expenses, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, or other out-of-pocket costs.

Non-economic damages compensate for intangible negative impacts on your life that don’t have a specific price tag. These can include emotional distress, pain and suffering, disfigurement, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life.

East St. Louis Medical Malpractice FAQ

Medical malpractice is when a health care provider fails to meet professional standards of care, causing a patient in their care to become injured. Our trusted legal team can help you understand whether you have a valid medical malpractice case.

Anyone can file a medical malpractice lawsuit, but it’s important to have a knowledgeable attorney handling your case.

You should file a medical malpractice lawsuit in Illinois as soon as you suspect malpractice—deadlines apply. If you think you have a case, contact us today for a free consultation.

The statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits in Illinois is typically two years from the date you were injured, with some exceptions. It’s important to work with a knowledgeable East St. Louis medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible to ensure you don’t miss the deadline.

Our experienced East St. Louis medical malpractice lawyers charge nothing up front. You won’t pay us any fees unless you win your case.

Speak to an East St. Louis Medical Malpractice Lawyer at Levin & Perconti Today

Our trusted firm is committed to getting justice for victims of medical malpractice in East St. Louis and throughout Illinois. We’re ready to fight to get you the compensation you deserve. If you suspect a medical error caused harm, our team is prepared to listen and help you plan the next steps. Since 1992, we’ve recovered over $1 billion for clients nationwide.

Contact us online or call (312) 332-2872 today to schedule a free and confidential consultation with our experienced medical malpractice attorneys. We’ll help you understand whether you have a valid claim, and you won’t pay any fees unless you win your case.