A Cook County Law Division jury reached a verdict awarding $3,186,047.00 in a medical malpractice case brought by a former attorney against Roseland Community Hospital.  

David Blutcher, a 37 year old attorney, went to Roseland Community Hospital on July 1, 1995, with complaints of shortness of breath.  While there, he had an onset of chest pain that went untreated and untested until he was transferred to another hospital five hours later. 

Plaintiff alleged that the hospital was negligent in its care and also negligent in credentialing the emergency room physician.  After being transferred to the other hospital, he received anticoagulants that relieved his pain and opened his blocked heart vessel. 

According to Blutcher’s attorney, Stephen D. Phillips of Phillips Law Offices, the jury found that additional damage done to the heart by the delay caused a clot to form in the heart which was thrown to the brain, resulting in a stroke in December 1997.  That stroke caused speech deficits that have left him unable to engage in his former law practice.

The trial was presided over by Judge Allen S. Goldberg of the Law Division in the Circuit Court of Cook County.  Mr. Blutcher was also represented at trial by Charles Hornewer and Terrence Quinn of Phillips Law Offices. Roseland Community Hospital was represented by David Loughnane and Carl Schultz of Johnson & Bell, Ltd.