U. of I. to pay $10 million of $30 million medical malpractice settlement

Feb. 25--The University of Illinois plans to pay $10 million of a proposed $30 million medical malpractice settlement involving a catastrophic brain injury to a Chicago-area toddler due to surgical complications, the Tribune has confirmed.

The proposed settlement was reached last week just as a civil trial was about to start in a lawsuit alleging negligence against Dr. Mark Holterman, a pediatric surgeon. The lawsuit said Holterman performed 24 experimental surgeries on a baby who was born in November 2009 with a leak in his esophagus. In the final surgery performed in 2011, Holterman used a suturing device that severed the boy's pulmonary artery, according to the suit, which was brought by the child's mother, Ethel Chavez.

Holterman was practicing at the University of Illinois' Chicago hospital when some of the earlier procedures were performed, said Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the university's Chicago campus. The surgeon also operated on the Chavez child at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Rush will pay $20 million of the settlement, Gonzalez said.

Holterman has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois' College of Medicine for more than 18 years, according to Gonzalez. He is working at the medical school's campus in Peoria.

Since he is a university employee, Holterman is covered under the school's self-insurance program for medical malpractice, Gonzalez said.

The university's board of trustees is scheduled to consider the proposed settlement at the upcoming March meeting, Gonzalez said.

"Our caregivers are dedicated to delivering accessible, compassionate health care to the people of Illinois," Gonzalez said in a statement. "We are saddened by these events and extend our deepest sympathy to the family."

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