Caldwell v. Advocate Condell Medical Center

Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Medical Malpractice
Citation
Case Number: 
2017 IL App (2d) 160456
Decision Date: 
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
District: 
2d Dist.
Division/County: 
Lake Co.
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
BIRKETT

Jury verdict for Defendant hospital in medical malpractice action for death of patient, age 92, who died after choking on food, as she was eating breakfast following surgery. Plaintiff claimed that hospital failed to adequately monitor decedent, in allowing her to eat without ensuring that her dentures were in her mouth, and in failing to ensure that she was recovered from surgery sufficiently to consume food. Court did not err in allowing hospital's experts to testify that, in their opinion, decedent had both sets of dentures in her mouth when she was eating breakfast, as their testimony was not speculative and was based on medical records, professional experience, and deposition testimony of other witnesses. Attorney-client privilege did not exist between hospital's nurse manager and hospital's counsel, because nurse manager was an agent of hospital and an insured under hospital's self-insured trust. The fact that nurse manager retired before her evidence deposition was irrelevant to her status as hospital's agent. No violation of Petrillo doctrine when hospital talked to nurse manager before her evidence deposition. HUTCHINSON and ZENOFF, concurring.)