Trapp & Geller

$12,000,000 — Mother given excessive Pitocin during labor, causing brain damage to her newborn child. Chicago-area mom, expecting her first child, was admitted to a suburban Chicago hospital. During labor, the doctor ordered Pitocin, which is a drug used to stimulate contractions in order to move the labor process along. Excessive amounts of Pitocin, administered contrary to the hospital's own policies, were administered by the nurses. It was alleged that the doctor failed to monitor the amount of Pitocin given to the mother. The baby was born brain damaged and requires lifelong 24-hour care. Shortly after filing the lawsuit, the hospital and doctor offered $12 million to settle the case. This money will be used to take care of the child and give her as full a life as possible under the circumstances.

$10,000,000 — Misread ultrasound results in brain injury to newborn. First-time mom was ecstatic to learn she was having twins. A routine ultrasound taken just prior to her due date showed that the twins were in fetal distress and emergency procedures needed to be undertaken. The radiologist misread the ultrasound noting it was normal. One of the infants was stillborn at birth and the other infant suffered profound brain damage until the time of his death at the age of 7. The hospital and doctor settled the case for $10 million.

$8,000,000 — Woman mistakenly given death penalty drug in emergency room. A 46-year-old woman with a stomach ache goes to the emergency room. The doctor ordered Pepcid, which is a common drug prescribed to relieve minor stomach ailments. Instead, the nurse on duty gave the woman one of the three drugs previously used in Illinois for lethal injection. This drug, which is a paralytic agent, caused the woman to stop breathing. She went into cardiac arrest and although she was rescued by the emergency room doctor, she suffered brain damage.

$2,000,000 — Worker cleaning railroad tracks gets hit by train. An 18-year-old man, on his first day working as a laborer for a construction company, was struck by a train while cleaning debris from an overhead construction project on an interstate which stands over the railroad tracks. The railway complained to the construction company of the debris falling on the tracks and ordered the construction company to clean the debris on a daily basis. Despite the fact that the railroad knew there were workers in the vicinity, it issued no warnings to its conductors to slow down or to take precautions when approaching the vicinity. The case settled for $2 million.

$1,200,000 — Youth killed by a train. A family of a youth killed by a train filed suit against the railroad for failing to take precautions when the railroad knew the children frequently played on the tracks in the area. In fact, the railroad tracks were adjacent to a park where a big hole had been cut into a fence which the children would use to cut across the railroad tracks. On the day of the occurrence, other trains had warned the dispatcher of the presence of youngsters in the vicinity of the railroad tracks. The dispatcher failed to alert the trains and two children were killed. Jamie M. Trapp represented the estate of one of the children and received $1.2 million.

$1,000,000 – FELA railroad employee injures back on the job. A Metra carman was pulling a heavy tarp at work and the tarp snagged on a bent and dangerous piece of railroad track which caused the worker to suffer a herniated disc and annular tear in the L5-S1 disc in his lower back. The worker required a disc replacement surgery but was returned back to work. Metra and its supervisors denied any wrongdoing and denied that the worker's injuries were related to the incident and made no offers to settle the case. Jeremy Geller from Trapp & Geller prepared the case for trial and four days before trial was set to begin, Metra offered $1 million to settle the case.