A hospital will pay a local woman a seven-figure settlement after a disturbing case of medical negligence.
The hospital, part of one of the largest health systems in the nation, failed to properly clean its operating room between patients. As a result, a surgeon used a needle contaminated with HIV and syphilis on her patient, who was under anesthesia. The same needle was used on the previous patient in the same operating room and was left on an instrument tray that wasn’t removed between surgeries.
Attorney Brian Lewis of The Lewis Law Firm in Lake Forest, who negotiated the settlement on behalf of his client, calls this one of the worst examples of medical malpractice he has seen in his 27-year career. “It’s hard to fathom that in 2024 a hospital in this country doesn’t have safety procedures for sanitation, or it just doesn’t follow them. My client is traumatized. She faces a lifetime of fear and mistrust. Only because of luck does she not yet have a deadly disease. She requires blood testing every three months to monitor her health.”
Since her contaminated surgery earlier this year, Lewis says his client suffers from severe mental and emotional distress, including fear, anxiety and depression. She is under the care of a psychiatrist and will require that care, and medication, for the rest of her life. “Understandably, my client now has serious trust issues with the medical profession. Hopefully, with proper therapy, she’ll get to a point where having a simple blood test is not a traumatizing event,” Lewis added.
“Our community deserves to know where this shocking incident occurred, but the hospital demanded confidentiality with this settlement. Facing years of litigation, plus the embarrassment of being exposed to HIV and syphilis through no fault of her own, my client decided to agree to confidentiality so she can begin putting her life back together,” Lewis added.
Through interviews and investigation, Lewis was able to piece together the sequence of events that led to the contaminated needle being used in surgery on his client’s eye. “It was a chain of negligence. In today’s fast-paced world, the hospital and physician moved too quickly to the detriment of patient safety. May this settlement serve as a lesson to all health care providers that they must live up to their standards of care for every single patient 100% of the time.”
