A Richton Park Dialysis Patient, Five Missed Treatments, and a $5.5 Million Cook County Verdict

Sandy Brooks was 85 and lived with end-stage renal disease, kidney failure severe enough that he needed dialysis three times a week to clear the waste his body could no longer filter on its own. In October 2020 he fell at home and suffered a brain bleed. Doctors at Advocate Christ Medical Center treated him, and on November 25, 2020 they moved him to Landmark of Richton Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center for physical therapy. His transfer records spelled out the dialysis schedule he depended on to stay alive.

Over the next 13 days, he received none of it. Brooks missed five scheduled dialysis appointments while in the facility's care. For someone with failed kidneys, missing those sessions is not a minor lapse: poisons the body cannot expel keep climbing toward levels the heart and brain cannot survive. With no treatment, toxins built up in his blood. His family's last contact with him came on a FaceTime call on December 6. The next day, staff found him unresponsive. He died days later of multi-organ system failure.

The family said they never understood how far he had declined. "He went through multi-organ system failure," his granddaughter, Katherine Boston, told FOX 32 Chicago. "He was struggling and we didn't know this. We weren't able to help him." His daughter, Andrea Brooks, said going back through the case for trial forced her to relive it all: "I could not believe the magnitude of how my dad suffered."

Madison Cogan of Malman Law represented the family. At trial in Cook County, the case came down to one plain fact: a patient whose chart called for dialysis three times a week went nearly two weeks without a single session, and no one at the home stepped in to fix it. The suit named both the facility and its management company, Infinity Healthcare Management of Illinois LLC. Cogan urged families who suspect neglect to report it to the Illinois Department of Public Health, not only to a lawyer.

Jury selection took three days. Presenting the evidence took about a week. The jury then deliberated for roughly three hours before returning a $5.5 million verdict against Landmark and Infinity Healthcare Management. Reporters noted the award tied the largest nursing home neglect verdict in Cook County history.

No reduction or appeal of the award has been reported.