Belleville hospitals, doctors named in med mal suit over blocked artery condition

A man whose mother died after suffering from a blocked artery blames doctors at various Belleville hospitals and clinics for contributing to his mother's passing.

Jonathan Lewis filed a complaint Sept. 29 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against Dr. Leo W. Sullivan, Belleville Emergency Physicians, Dr. Salma Mannan-Hilaly, Healthcare Physicians of Southern Illinois doing business as Family Physicians of Southern Illinois, P.C. Associates doing business as Family Physicians of Southern Illinois and Protestant Memorial Medical Center doing business as Memorial Hospital.

Jonathan Lewis claims his mother, Melva Lewis, rushed to Memorial Hospital on Aug. 26, 2008, where Sullivan, who worked for Belleville Emergency Physicians, treated her.

However, while providing Melva Lewis with medical care, Sullivan performed a number of allegedly negligent acts, including a failure to consider her history of deep vein thrombosis, a condition of blood clots in the legs; and a failure to appreciate swelling and tenderness in her right ankle, according to the complaint. In addition, the doctor allegedly failed to consider the thrombosis as a possible cause of the swelling in Melva Lewis' right ankle, failed to order a D-dimer test and only ordered an ACE wrap to be placed on Melva Lewis' ankle, the suit states.

Later, Melva Lewis came under Mannan-Hilaly's care. But Mannan-Hilaly, who worked for Health Care Physicians of Illinois and P.C. Associates, also performed a number of allegedly negligent acts in his treatment of Melva Lewis, such as his failure to acknowledge a deep vein thrombosis, his failure to appreciate risk factors for venous insufficiency, his failure to rule out deep vein thrombosis in a timely manner, his failure to consider pulmonary embolism during a hospitalization at Memorial Hospital on Oct. 1, 2008, and his failure to timely treat Melva Lewis, the complaint says.

As a result, Melva Lewis suffered from a pulmonary emboli, a condition that occurs when the blood clot from a person's leg travels to his/her lungs, the complaint says. In turn, the pulmonary emboli caused Melva Lewis to die on Oct. 3, 2008, her son claims.

Because of his mother's death, Jonathan Lewis has been deprived of her companionship and society and suffered grief, sorrow and mental suffering, according to the complaint.

In his 12-count complaint, Jonathan Lewis seeks a judgment of more than $600,000, plus costs.

Staci M. Yandle of The Law Offices of Staci M. Yandle in O'Fallon will be representing him.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 10-L-507.