$1.6 Million Awarded in Lake County Medical Malpractice Suit

A Lake County jury returned a verdict awarding $1,671,000 in compensatory damages to an 84-year old woman whose October 2009 knee replacement was botched at a local Waukegan hospital. The injured patient lost complete use of her left leg after undergoing a total knee replacement surgery. Attorneys Sean Burke and Stephen Phalen, who represented the patient, believe that the jury’s decision for their client is also a positive one for the community as it reinforces the responsibility of surgeons and doctors to make safe choices in the best interest of their patients.

In the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County, Illinois, the 12-member jury held the defendant doctor accountable for medical malpractice. They deemed him responsible for injuring his patient’s popliteal artery during surgery, and also for allowing an 18-hour delay in responding to a post-surgical emergency that required surgical repair within a 6-hour window. The delay, combined with the physician-inflicted injury, so damaged the patient’s leg that a surgery intended to improve knee joint function resulted in a total and permanent mobility loss. The damages awarded for this egregious medical malpractice considered the victim’s pain and suffering, loss of normal life, disfigurement, resultant medical expenses and future care costs.

“Stephen Phalen and I are very pleased for our client and her family,” stated Burke, whose practice is in Lake Forest. “These tragic injuries should have never happened. Now she and her family can afford the care that she needs and deserves.”

About The Law Office of Sean C. Burke

Sean Burke, principal attorney at The Law Office of Sean C. Burke, is a plaintiff's personal injury lawyer with more than 20 years of trial experience. Sean has won large verdicts and settlements in difficult cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice and workplace negligence. He has previously worked for the Lake County State's Attorney's Office in Waukegan and a highly-regarded personal injury firm in Chicago. Burke has received Martindale Hubbell's AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, the highest rating available, been named an Illinois Super Lawyer each year since 2012 and is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Visit www.SeanBurkeLaw.com.

About The Law Offices of Stephen S. Phalen

Stephen Phalen has practiced as a trial lawyer representing injured patients and workers since 1985. Stephen has obtained mutli-million dollar medical malpractice and workplace negligence settlements and verdicts for his clients in Chicago and surrounding counties. Stephen is a long time member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and has received Martindale Hubbell's AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating. Visit www.Phalenlaw.com