Steven Jambois

Five days after a radical prostatectomy at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon in August 2003, Clinton Dean Lovell was admitted with constipation. A physician ordered an enema only if Lovell's urologist approved; a nurse skipped that step and had an aide give a tap-water enema, which tore open the freshly sutured area and created a fistula between his rectum and bladder. Lovell went through a colostomy, a bladder catheter, fistula repair, colostomy reversal and an artificial urinary sphincter, and was left permanently incontinent. The hospital admitted negligence but blamed the surgery for the fistula. In September 2008 a Coles County jury awarded $2,378,258, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed in January 2010.

A Coles County, Illinois jury awarded Katherine Adams $561,389.90 against Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center and surgeon Dr. Kellie Jones-Monahan. During a routine laparoscopic gallbladder removal on November 15, 2002, the surgeon divided Adams's common bile duct, and she needed an ambulance transfer to a St. Louis hospital and a reconstructive operation. At trial the surgeon admitted that the common bile duct had been mistakenly dissected. The Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District, affirmed the verdict in January 2007.