BELLEVILLE — A patient claims she a Belleville physician failed to properly treat her urinary tract infection prior to surgery, causing septic shock and amputations from her hands and feet.
Brenda Schmitz and Dennis Schmitz filed a complaint March 17 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Dr. James Rybak, Urology of St. Louis Inc., and Protestant Memorial Medical Center, doing business as Memorial Hospital of Belleville, alleging negligence.
Brenda Schmitz alleges in her complaint that in December and November 2019, she was under the care of Rybak for a urinary tract infection, stent removal and stone retrieval. She claims that Rybak failed to "rule out" a urinary tract infection prior to her surgical procedure in December 2019. She also alleges Rybak failed to have a "pre-operative antibiotic" administered to her "before instrumenting her urinary tract."
Schmitz claims Rybak's negligence resulted in her suffering from septic shock, amputations from both hands and feet, acute encephalopathy, hypotensive shock, acute respiratory failure, renal failure, and metabolic acidosis.
Schmitz seeks compensation of more than $75,000 and all other proper relief. She is represented by Thomas Keefe, Jr., of Keefe, Keefe & Unsell PC in Belleville.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 21-L-0263