McNabola Law Group obtained a $6.25 million settlement after a hospital failed to provide urgent and appropriate care to a Will County man who sustained a traumatic brain injury when he was assaulted outside a tavern.
“This settlement will go a long way toward ensuring our client will continue to get excellent medical care,” McNabola Law Group founding partner Mark McNabola said. “Our team put together a comprehensive strategy and roster of world-class expert witnesses. We are happy to have reached a settlement that will provide for our client’s needs and help the family through this very difficult time.”
The firm’s client, a Tinley Park resident, suffered a head injury after being assaulted outside a Mokena, Ill., bar in the summer of 2009.
On the way to the emergency room, paramedics reported information to the hospital staff that was clearly indicative of a traumatic brain injury and likely brain bleed. Because the hospital did not have a neurosurgeon on staff or on call to evaluate or treat the man, he should have been redirected or transferred to an appropriate Level II or Level I trauma center.
Instead, the hospital admitted the man — costing him the opportunity for timely treatment to avoid brain herniation and permanent irreversible brain damage.
Though he arrived in critical condition, he was not transferred to an appropriately staffed hospital for more that two hours and did not undergo surgery for more than seven hours. As a result, his brain continued to bleed and his intracranial pressure continued to increase, ultimately causing his brain to herniate.
McNabola Law Group took over the medical negligence case in 2015.
Mark McNabola and partners Ruth Degnan and Don McGarrah obtained a $6.25 million settlement on Oct. 23, 2019.
“Our client and his family will live with the consequences of the defendants’ conduct for the rest of their lives,” Degnan said. “He was a wonderful father, brother and son who had his whole life ahead of him. He sustained an injury that was treatable, and due to the hospital’s negligence, the results were catastrophic.”
At the time of the incident, the firm’s client was a 26-year-old father of one, working as a project manager at a highly regarded construction company. He now lives with severe spastic quadriplegia and severely impaired cognitive capabilities. He is fully dependent in all of his activity and mobility skills and requires full-time care.
“His mother and sister have been amazing caregivers and advocates since his injury,” Degnan said. “This settlement will provide them with the resources they need to ensure he continues to receive the best possible care.”
A case against the emergency room physician remains pending. McNabola Law Group argues the physician failed to urgently assess, treat and transfer the patient.
The hospital was represented by John Patton and Whitney Burkett of Patton & Ryan, LLC and James Bream and Shannon Holbrook of Lowis & Gellen. The defense argued there was no delay or error in the treatment provided by the hospital emergency department, and that the initial injury was so severe (including a GCS of 3.5 on arrival to the emergency room) that earlier neurosurgical evaluation and treatment would not have changed the patient’s outcome.
