Vinkler Law Offices, Ltd. Secures $13.5 Million Settlement in Cook County Medical Malpractice Case
On January 8, 2026, Jerome A. Vinkler of Vinkler Law Offices, Ltd. obtained a $13,500,000 confidential settlement in a Cook County medical malpractice case involving a catastrophic surgical injury that resulted in an above-the-knee amputation for a 49-year-old man.
The Plaintiff went to a major Chicagoland Hospital for an anterior approach total hip arthroplasty surgery on October 18, 2023. When the orthopedic surgeon began the surgery, he transected the deep femoral artery, resulting in the loss of a total of 6,000 ccs of blood that required a full blood transfusion. When attempting to cauterize the artery, mistaking it for a minor artery, he cut another major artery. When a clot occurred, he wrongly presumed he cauterized an artery. It took over one hour for the surgeon to stabilize the Plaintiff, and a vascular surgeon was never called during the operation.
After the bleeding was controlled, the orthopedic surgeon decided to continue with the hip replacement surgery, despite the amount of blood loss, without consulting with a vascular surgeon, and attempted to ligate the transected arteries himself instead. After the surgery, he also failed to check the Plaintiff’s peripheral pulses before leaving the operating room. This is crucial because these arteries and vessels run very close to the hip joint, and they were damaged during the procedure. Checking the pulses would help early detection of vascular compromise to prevent permanent injury or limb loss, which both occurred to the Plaintiff after his hip replacement. This is below the standard of care and could have been avoided if a vascular surgeon had been consulted after the transection and the patient’s peripheral pulses had been checked.
The Plaintiff’s right leg suffered from ischemia for the next 4-8 hours after surgery. The subsequent return of blood flow led to a reperfusion injury with kidney failure and considerable risk of infection.
The hip replacement surgery started at 9:30 AM and stopped at 11:00 AM. The first consultation with a vascular surgeon was not until 7:55 PM that evening. At 8:45 PM, a vascular surgeon team performed a right leg thrombectomy with right leg angiogram and repair of the right femoral artery, including ligation of the transected deep femoral artery. The Plaintiff was then taken directly to the ICU, intubated, and in critical condition.
On October 19, 2023, the Plaintiff developed rhabdomyolysis, acute renal insufficiency requiring hemodialysis, acute right lower extremity ischemia, and remained in critical condition.
On October 20, 2023, the Plaintiff was also diagnosed with compartment syndrome of the right thigh, and an emergency fasciotomy was performed on his right leg. Four days after the fasciotomy, the Plaintiff was unable to move his right lower leg and was in extreme pain. On October 26, 2023, they extended the right calf fasciotomy.
The Plaintiff asked to be transferred to another major Chicagoland Hospital on November 1, 2023, for more specialized care. During this time, his situation worsened, and the Plaintiff had to undergo an above the-knee amputation of his left leg. The hip prosthesis had to be removed due to infection and purulent drainage from the right groin.
On January 13, 2024, the Plaintiff was finally discharged with a wound vac and in extreme pain.
After this incident, the Plaintiff has seen numerous surgeons to try to have a hip replacement. He has been turned down by every orthopedic surgeon he has seen because of the damage that took place on October 18, 2023. He continues pain management. A prosthetic leg is useless because of the pain of bearing any amount of weight on his right side. He uses a wheelchair. Judge Harmening (ret.) helped to mediate this settlement.
This case settled after the Plaintiff’s deposition. A review of cases settled before trial shows this is the highest settlement involving an above-the-knee amputation in the ten-year search.
According to Mr. Vinkler, “This record-setting settlement was accomplished in just one afternoon. We were helped by the efforts of Judge Ed Harmening (ret.). Our client will be able to obtain the help he needs, and he told me he felt he had obtained justice.”
Vinkler Law Offices represents Plaintiffs injured in personal injury matters for catastrophic injury and wrongful death, including medical malpractice, product liability, drug litigation, trucking crash, construction, and nursing home matters.
