$3.5 Million Settlement for 79 Year Old Complete Paraplegic

$3.5 Million Settlement for 79 Year Old Complete Paraplegic

On September 27, 2017, Jean Lipps presented to Central DuPage Hospital with recurrent hemoptysis. Hemoptysis is the coughing up of blood from the lungs. During her stay, it was recommended that she have a bronchial arterial embolization performed. Bronchial arterial embolization is a procedure to stop hemoptysis. Plaintiff alleged the interventional radiologist at Northwestern failed to recognize the spinal artery and embolization material was inserted into the spinal artery instead of the bronchial artery. Plaintiff’s claimed that the bronchial arterial embolization should not have been done in the first place because the hemoptysis was not life-threatening. The defense claimed that the spinal artery was not visible in real-time on the arteriogram and that the interventional radiologist did enough to avoid the same.