By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) In the race for mayor, Cook County Board President and Democratic Party Chair Toni Preckwinkle has received a controversial contribution.
The Cook County Board has approved a $3.9M settlement of a medical malpractice lawsuit. The county hospital patient in question suffered a permanent brain injury.
His lawyers have donated $10,000 to Preckwinkle’s campaign for mayor.
When asked if this is proper, Preckwinkle said, “I’m not gonna answer questions related to the mayoral race. I’ll only say raising money as a candidate is you try to raise money as broadly as you can so that you’re not indebted to any particular constituency or tribe and you’re free, as I always have been, to make the best decision I can on behalf of all of the people.”
The Romanucci and Blandin law firm says it gave Preckwinkle $10,000 because she’s a fierce advocate for the many policy reforms critically needed in Chicago. This is an official statement from the Romanucci & Blandin firm regarding the Flores Lawsuit Settlement:
On September 6, 2013, a very unfortunate and grossly improper decision was made by physicians employed by and working at Cook County Hospital to perform a bedside pericardiocentesis for our client, Mr. Flores. When this procedure is performed, it is performed in the cardiac catherization laboratory, not at bedside. The cardiology fellow and/or attending physician deviated from the standard of care by making the decision to perform this elective, non-emergent bedside procedure, which resulted in them puncturing Mr. Flores’ heart, causing him to lose massive amounts of blood, resulting in an anoxic brain injury. Continued deviations from the standard of care include: puncturing his right ventricle and failing to timely address the injury which resulted in permanent brain damage. To say Mr. Flores’ life has been dramatically altered is an understatement. His personality is diminished, he cannot take care of himself and he is currently receiving hospice treatment.
Regarding Dr. Smego, he was the doctor who operated on Mr. Flores after the negligence occurred. Therefore he was voluntarily dismissed from the case early on.
The Flores case went to mediation in June, at which point a settlement was reached. We were advised by the County’s attorneys that the matter was approved on September 11th.
Lastly, regarding the campaign donations to Toni Preckwinkle, our firm has a long standing history of donating to those candidates, not limited to Preckwinkle, which we believe will be the fiercest advocates to address the many policy reforms critically needed in the City of Chicago that our firm has been fighting for over the last several years, including: police misconduct, nursing home safety, and other civil rights violations.
@ 2018 WLS-AM News
