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Illinois Attorneys Obtain Summary Judgment in Medical Professional Liability Case

Illinois attorneys Lawrence R. Stolberg and Natalie J. Eschbach recently obtained summary judgment in the Illinois Cook County Law Division on behalf of a healthcare management company client. The incident occurred at a healthcare facility managed by our client and involved a patient injury that led to medical issues and an abundance of medical expenses, followed by a separate alleged event that contributed to the patient’s death.

Plaintiff, the patient/decedent’s daughter, alleged that the patient fell at the facility, which resulted in a hip fracture. Following the injury, the patient had hip surgery and developed a post-surgical infection, that gave rise to multiple additional surgeries and accumulated more than $200,000 in medical expenses. It is alleged that the patient later choked at the facility while eating and died.

Plaintiff hired four experts including a nurse, who testified as to the alleged violations of the nursing standard of care by the defendant nursing home and alleged management company as well as a geriatric physician, pathologist and cardiologist each who provided opinions as to proximate cause and/or cause of death.

Partner Larry Stolberg deposed each of the Plaintiff’s experts and elicited testimony from each that the alleged management company was not involved with the day-to-day operation of the defendant nursing home. Additional elicited testimony was received from the medical experts that no claimed act or omission by the alleged management company proximately caused harm, injury or death to the decedent.

In September 2021, the Judge granted our attorneys’ Motion for Summary Judgment. The case was to continue to trial against the remaining Defendant medical facility; however, due to our attorneys’ obtaining summary judgment, the alleged management company client was no longer involved in the litigation.

Larry has more than 30 years of experience as a trial attorney, successfully trying a number of cases to verdict. He focuses his practice on the defense of bodily injury claims, including defense litigation of nursing homes and medical malpractice claims. Larry also has extensive experience defending general liability, premises liability, trucking and construction claims.

Natalie focuses her legal practice on construction and products liability, as well as trucking liability claims. She also handles numerous matters involving professional medical malpractice. Natalie has additional experience with complex litigation and catastrophic personal injury cases, as well as premises liability claims.