$30 Million Settlement After Surgeon Performed 25 Experimental Procedures on an Infant

Ezequiel Chavez was born on November 5, 2009 with a small leak in his esophagus, a condition his family's attorneys later described as non-life-threatening and readily correctable with standard surgical repair. The day after his birth, pediatric surgeon Dr. Mark Holterman performed an esophageal procedure at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. That operation was the first of what would become a long series.

Over the next two years, Holterman conducted 24 experimental procedures on Ezequiel. The child was eventually transferred to Rush University Medical Center, where Holterman also held a staff position. On August 17, 2011, Holterman performed a twenty-fifth operation at Rush. During that surgery, he improperly manipulated a surgical needle and severed Ezequiel's pulmonary artery. The resulting blood loss caused catastrophic brain injury. Ezequiel survived but was left with permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy.

Stephan Blandin of Romanucci and Blandin took on the case for Ezequiel's mother, Ethel Chavez. Blandin argued that Holterman's procedures were 'risky and novel' and that Rush had failed to provide adequate oversight of a surgeon conducting experimental work on a young child. The case centered on both the individual surgeon's conduct and the institutional failures that allowed the sequence of procedures to continue without intervention.

The parties reached a $30 million settlement in February 2016, which the Chicago Sun-Times reported was the fourth-largest medical malpractice settlement for a child in Illinois history. Rush University Medical Center agreed to pay $20 million. The University of Illinois at Chicago, whose faculty Holterman had been part of when the earlier surgeries were performed, agreed to pay the remaining $10 million, though UIC had not been named as a defendant in the amended complaint. Rush stated the settlement would provide for Ezequiel's lifetime care.