Mark R.
McKenna

Mark and his partners Chris Hurley and Clint Pierce recently won a record-setting jury verdict of over $41 million against OSF HealthCare System, Fresenius Medical Care of Illinois, RenalCare Associates, and Dr. Sudha Cherukuri on behalf of a 72-year-old man who suffered a catastrophic stroke because the defendants failed to properly manage his blood thinning medication Coumadin.

At trial in the Cook County Circuit Court, Mark and the HM&M trial team presented evidence that OSF had a Coumadin Clinic on site available to manage the plaintiff’s INR levels and Coumadin therapy, either in person or by telephone. However, an OSF cardiologist and OSF’s hospitalist and nurses never referred the patient to there Coumadin Clinic, and OSF personnel incorrectly assumed Fresenius and its nephrology personnel would manage the patient’s AFib.

After four weeks of trial, Mark and the HM&M trial team obtained a total verdict of $41,149,942.38 for the injured plaintiff--the largest verdict in Illinois history for a stroke case. The jury’s verdict is also the largest in Illinois history for a medical malpractice plaintiff over 70 years of age.

Early in my career Chris Hurley and I went to trial in federal court against a major Chicago hospital. Our client had worked for the hospital for many years as a security guard. When he became injured trying to apprehend a violent individual at the hospital, he filed a workers’ compensation claim, as he had every right to do under Illinois law. However, the hospital’s management immediately—and wrongfully—fired this injured worker. Prior to the trial, the hospital never admitted their fault, and never made a settlement offer.

The hospital’s attorneys did, however, treat our client’s allegations with disdain, and at every opportunity during the trial argued to the jury that our client was fired because he was no longer needed, and that he was “lazy.” Our client, a man who had risked his life for his country in the Vietnam War, was anything but lazy. Chris and I felt that this wrongful firing was not a rare event at the hospital—large corporations often fire people who file legitimate workers’ compensation claims in order to scare other injured employees from reporting their injuries.

During the trial, we tracked down a former HR employee of the hospital and called her to testify at trial. This witness admitted on the stand that she had in fact been ordered by hospital management to fire injured workers–like our client—to avoid paying for their injuries and to intimidate other employees.

We won the case, and the jury awarded our client nearly $800,000. While over the years the verdicts we get for our clients have become larger and larger, I always think of that case as an example of how we are committed to giving injured people a fighting chance against corporations and institutions that act unfairly and illegally.

One of my most memorable cases involved an issue that had never been addressed in Illinois courts—whether a hospital could be held responsible for negligently credentialing a doctor. Our client went to a local hospital for what she thought was a routine procedure by a podiatrist–removal of a bunion.

The hospital granted the podiatrist credentials to perform the surgical procedure without making sure the podiatrist was properly trained to do it—in fact, he was not under the hospital’s own written standards. Our client developed a severe foot infection, and had to have a portion of her foot amputated. She had loved her job as a surgical nurse, but the amputation forced her to prematurely retire.

The podiatrist did not carry anywhere close to the insurance coverage that would properly compensate our client for her losses. The hospital refused to accept any responsibility for the mistakes of the podiatrist, even though it made money by billing our client for the use of the hospital’s facilities during the negligent surgery. The hospital never offered to settle our client’s case.

We took the hospital to trial, and won a $7,775,668.02 jury verdict for our client. We fought to defend the jury’s verdict after the hospital appealed, and won a great victory when we convinced the Illinois Appellate Court to recognize a cause of action against a hospital for negligent credentialing, in Frigo v. Silver Cross Hospital, 377 Ill.App.3d 43, 876 N.E.2d 697 (1st Dist. 2007). I think of this case when others say the law can’t change to help the victims of negligence—the law can change when we are willing to fight for it to change.

I am honored by my selection to the Board of Managers of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. The members of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association fight to ensure all citizens get equal footing in the courtroom, even when taking on the most powerful interests.

We see to it that those who harm consumers, other individuals, or even their own employees, are held accountable. The Board of Managers of ITLA is composed of the finest trial lawyers of not just Illinois, but the nation. I am greatly honored to be part of ITLA and its managing body.