Motherway, Glenn and Napleton has announced that Robert J. Glenn is leaving the firm effective January 1, 2003, ending a twenty year relationship with the firm and its predecessor, Motherway and Glenn. The firm will continue, as Motherway and Napleton, concentrating in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases. Glenn plans to enjoy a sabbatical and then return to the practice of law sometime next year.

Commenting on Glenn’s departure, Nick Motherway said Bob will be missed. We’ve shared many satisfying professional experiences over the years. I wish him the very best in his new endeavors. Bob Napleton recalled that As a law clerk and in my early years as a lawyer, I gained invaluable insights into the successful practice of law from Bob Glenn. I hold him in the highest regard and wish him the very best. Glenn said Over the past twenty years, I have had the privilege of helping to develop a successful practice working with lawyers of the highest professional caliber. I wish them continued success.

A $6.5 million settlement has been approved by Cook County Circuit Judge Bill Taylor in a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed that doctors negligently failed to administer an appropriate vaccine after his spleen was removed.

After years of health problems, Carl Musillo was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis in 1995 at age 44.

Musillo claimed that his primary care physician, Dr. Mark Gillis, failed to administer pneumococcal vaccine although he knew Musillo had undergone a splenectomy in 1970 as a result of Hodgkin’s disease.

Musillo saw Gillis 15 times for various maladies, including infection, between 1992 and 1994, said Robert J. Napleton who represented the Musillos.

Musillo also alleged that the physicians at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center who arranged for the splenectomy failed to administer the vaccine on two occasions, in 1990 and 1993.

The Immunization Practices Advisory Committee of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that such vaccines be administered to adults who are unusually likely to develop pneumococcal infections or a serious complication of infection. This category includes persons with asplenia, Napleton said.

The case is Carl Musillo v. Mark Gillis, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, et al., No. 01 L 5848.

On October 15, 2002, Robert J. Napleton gave a speech at the Westin Hotel at an

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Seminar on the subject of “Liens on Personal Injury

Cases” before a large group of Chicago trial lawyers.

MacNeal Memorial Hospital has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that nurses failed to monitor a 69-year-old patient after total knee replacement surgery.

Cook County Circuit Judge William D. Maddux, who presides over the Law Division, approved the settlement today.

Frank Perez, a retired sheet metal worker for Brach Candy Co., living in Cicero, had the surgery on April 23, 1999, in the Berwyn hospital.

Plaintiff attorney Robert J. Napleton of Motherway Glenn & Napleton alleged that nurses gave Perez a large dose of a narcotic pain medication known as fentanyl, then failed to monitor him. Perez went into respiratory and cardiac arrest, and suffered brain damage. He died less than two months later.

Perez is survived by his wife and three grown children. A case against a doctor and a nurse anesthetist is pending in court.

The case is The Estate of Frank Perez v. MacNeal Memorial Hospital, et al., No. 99 L 14477.

Cook County Circuit Judge William D. Maddux approved a settlement of nearly $1.4

million in a wrongful-death case involving a 35-year-old woman who died of a pulmonary

embolism, apparently after being misdiagnosed with dehydration at a suburban

hospital.

A day after being released from the hospital emergency room, the woman died of the

embolism, a severe condition in which blood vessels are blocked by a blood clot, fat

or other substance.

On April 19, 1998, Sharon Jean Williams went to the Loyola University Medical

Center emergency room with complaints of dizziness and shortness of breath. According

to the lawsuit, doctors attributed the symptoms to Williams’ weight of 325 pounds. She

also had moved to a new apartment the day before.

Williams was given food and an IV for dehydration, and was discharged. She died the

next day.

She is survived by her husband, Stanley, whom she had married three years earlier.

The couple had no children.

The woman’s estate was represented by Robert J. Napleton of Motherway, Glenn &

Napleton. The case is Stanley Williams, etc., v. Loyola University Medical Center, No.

99 L 00934.

A disabled girl from Robbins will receive a $15 million dollar award for improper medical care under the terms of a settlement approved by Cook County Judge Benjamin Novoselsky.

The settlement is the highest malpractice payout in Cook County Hospital history. The settlement was approved by the County Board on March 21, 2002 and is more than $3 million dollars higher than the record malpractice award agreed to by the county last year. Robert J. Napleton represented the plaintiffs in this case.

It is the labor and delivery nurse’s responsibility to clamp off the IV line before wheeling the patient from the labor area to the delivery room and it wasn’t done in this case’, said the plaintiffs attorney, Robert J. Napleton. Even worse, none of the hospital nurses had the courage to step up and admit involvement with unhooking the patient from the I.V. pump on the day in question. On a day that should have been the happiest day of Lavonne White’s life turned into an unthinkable disaster resulting in profound injuries to her daughter, and the mother’s death a few days later. The sudden cardiac arrest of the mother due to a magnesium sulfate overdose caused the mother and baby to be deprived of oxygen for over 15 minutes. The events that transpired (mother and baby suddenly going downhill) in the early morning hours on July 18, 1993 are one of the most catastrophic situations in medicine. Napleton said. A question was raised by the plaintiffs’ attorneys as to whether there were enough nurses on duty to properly monitor her IV lines. In the discovery phase of the case, it was determined one nurse was overseeing the labor of four patients, including Lavonne White. The mom got 10 times the prescribed amount of a potent drug because of carelessness by the attending nurse and lack of personnel. It was an event waiting to happen due to individual nursing negligence and negligence by the institution itself. said Napleton. It was prudent of the County Board to approve the award because their exposure was greater than the settlement amount given the egregious nature of the case and the severity of the child’s injuries he added. On the other hand, this settlement ensures the future medical needs of this child will be taken care of for life. Because of that, it would be too risky to try this case to verdict given the amount of the County’s settlement offer. We think it is an appropriate resolution to a tragic medical misadventure.

A disabled girl from Robbins will receive a $15 million dollar award for improper medical care under the terms of a settlement approved by Cook County Judge Benjamin Novoselsky.

The settlement is the highest malpractice payout in Cook County Hospital history. The settlement was approved by the County Board on March 21, 2002 and is more than $3 million dollars higher than the record malpractice award agreed to by the county last year. Robert J. Napleton represented the plaintiffs in this case.

It is the labor and delivery nurse’s responsibility to clamp off the IV line before wheeling the patient from the labor area to the delivery room and it wasn’t done in this case’, said the plaintiffs attorney, Robert J. Napleton. Even worse, none of the hospital nurses had the courage to step up and admit involvement with unhooking the patient from the I.V. pump on the day in question. On a day that should have been the happiest day of Lavonne White’s life turned into an unthinkable disaster resulting in profound injuries to her daughter, and the mother’s death a few days later. The sudden cardiac arrest of the mother due to a magnesium sulfate overdose caused the mother and baby to be deprived of oxygen for over 15 minutes. The events that transpired (mother and baby suddenly going downhill) in the early morning hours on July 18, 1993 are one of the most catastrophic situations in medicine. Napleton said. A question was raised by the plaintiffs’ attorneys as to whether there were enough nurses on duty to properly monitor her IV lines. In the discovery phase of the case, it was determined one nurse was overseeing the labor of four patients, including Lavonne White. The mom got 10 times the prescribed amount of a potent drug because of carelessness by the attending nurse and lack of personnel. It was an event waiting to happen due to individual nursing negligence and negligence by the institution itself. said Napleton. It was prudent of the County Board to approve the award because their exposure was greater than the settlement amount given the egregious nature of the case and the severity of the child’s injuries he added. On the other hand, this settlement ensures the future medical needs of this child will be taken care of for life. Because of that, it would be too risky to try this case to verdict given the amount of the County’s settlement offer. We think it is an appropriate resolution to a tragic medical misadventure.

On January 19, 2002, Robert J. Napleton gave a speech at the DoubleTreeHotel at a

Illinois Trial Lawyer’s Association seminar on the subject of “Screening Potential

Cases” before a large crowd of Chicago trial lawyers. The seminar audience consisted

of attorney members of the Illinois Trial Lawyers’s Association who came to learn

about tort litigation from intake to verdict.