BELLEVILLE – A patient is suing medical centers and their staff for allegedly failing to diagnose a shoulder fracture before performing physical therapy.
Plaintiff Karen Chatham filed a lawsuit in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Fairview Heights Medical Group, doing business as BJC Medical Group of Illinois, Charles, Lehmann, M.D., Gregory Churchill, PA, Protestant Memorial Medical Center, Inc., doing business as Memorial Hospital Shiloh, Michael Lin, M.D., Jordan Brown, M.D., Michael Jennewein, M.D., and Clinical Radiologists, citing negligence and carelessness.
According to the lawsuit, Chatham was a patient of the defendants. She alleges the defendant medical centers and their employees took inadequate images of her shoulder injury, which led to them missing an existing fracture in her right shoulder. As a result, the defendants allegedly performed physical therapy on the fracture, which instead required surgery.
Chatham claims the existing fracture in her right shoulder went undiagnosed and worsened. She required a hemiarthroplasty procedure, alleging an initial correct diagnosis would have resulted in a better outcome.
She claims that as a result of her injury, she has experienced pain and suffering, mental anguish, disability and disfigurement, which will impact her ability to enjoy normal daily life. Chatham adds that she has incurred substantial medical costs and will continue to require medical care to recover.
The plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, plus court costs and any other relief the court deems proper. She is represented in this case by attorney Thomas Q. Keefe, Jr. of Keefe, Keefe & Unsell, P.C. in Belleville.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 22LA0838