CHICAGO (April 9, 2019) – An Illinois hospital and its emergency room physicians agreed to pay nearly $15 million to resolve a suit accusing the providers of causing a woman’s permanent blindness with their negligent treatment, the woman’s attorneys said Tuesday.
The suit accuses Vista West Hospital and several ER doctors of failing to diagnose and properly treat a blood clot in Tamekia Johnson’s brain in 2011, leaving the swelling of her optic nerve to go untreated and causing her to lose vision in her left eye and, eventually, her right eye. The parties agreed on April 5 to settle the case for $14.85 million, according to Johnson’s attorneys with Salvi Schostok & Pritchard PC.
Terms of the settlement dictated that the identities of the ER doctors remain confidential, according to a Salvi Law spokeswoman.
The suit claimed Johnson went to the Vista West ER in Waukegan, about 40 miles north of Chicago, complaining of a severe headache, eyesight problems and vomiting. After she passed a vision test and a CT scan turned up negative, she was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, or partial facial paralysis or weakness. A nurse asked her to sign discharge papers, but she said she couldn’t read them. The nurse negligently failed to report this change in condition to the attending physician, Johnson’s attorneys said.
