St. Joseph's Hospital Case Study

Nicholas was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital that same day and remained as an inpatient until August 20, 2015. His treatment included placing his left leg in a knee immobilizer, non-weight bearing orders and splinting his left hand. The large laceration on his left leg was a significant concern and was monitored by general surgery because of the difficulty closing it due to soft tissue loss. In fact, the physicians at St. Joseph’s were never able to close this wound before Nicholas was discharged from that facility. Further, due to the severity of this open wound, the implementation of a VAS unit that Nicholas, with significant assistance from his parents, operated and maintained, was required for approximately four weeks beginning on …show more content…
Joseph’s Hospital, Nicholas was able to return to his home in Downers Grove, Illinois. He next sought treatment from Dr. Bush-Joseph and Dr. Wysocki at Midwest Orthopaedics. His left leg was kept in an immobilizer to allow the fractures to heal and Dr. Wysocki surgically installed pins in his left hand to treat the proximal phalanx fracture on August 24. Nicholas’ left hand was placed in a splint following the surgery and he was required to endure a subsequent surgery on September 17 for the removal of the pins.

Although he had been discharged from St. Joseph’s Hospital and was able to return to his family home, he still required daily medical care, which he received through home visits from August 20 through and including September 3 from Advocate Home Health. Further, as part of Nicholas’ treatment for his life-changing injuries, he participated in physical and occupational therapy at ATI physical therapy until December 31, 2015.

Although his therapy and treatment were not complete at that point in time, he was no longer financially able to continue as a result of the economic hardship related to this occurrence. But for his desperate financial situation, Nicholas may very well still be receiving medical treatment and corresponding therapy at this time, approximately seven months after the occurrence, in an attempt to resolve his continuing pain and discomfort and his inability to resume his physically active …show more content…
Piazzi is guilty of negligently entrusting his potentially dangerous vehicles to Mr. Lommatzsch and Nicholas when he knew or should have known that neither was certified nor qualified to operate the jet skis. Further, your other insured, Mr. Lommatzsch, is also liable for Nicholas’ injuries. The significant degree of damage to the jet ski that Nicholas was riding together with the severity of his injuries, visibly demonstrate that Mr. Lommatzsch was operating his jet ski at an excessive rate and too close to Nicholas in blatant violation of Wisconsin law.

As a result of your insureds’ clear negligence, we are certain that a jury would return a verdict against Messrs. Piazzi and Lommatzsch in excess of your insureds’ policy limits. Moreover, we do not believe that a jury would assess Nicholas more than ten percent comparative fault. However, in the event that a jury would find him more at fault, there is little probability, if any, that it would find him to be more than fifty percent at fault. Therefore, it is highly likely that we will obtain a favorable verdict on behalf of Nicholas.

Under the applicable law, Nicholas is able to recover the following elements of damages and based upon jury verdict research involving cases with similar injuries, we conservatively estimate that a Cook County jury would award the following amounts for each element:

ELEMENT