Woman claims medical providers' negligence led to husband's death following spinal leak surgery

A Cook County woman is suing over claims that the alleged negligence of her husband's medical providers during his recovery from meningitis led to his death.

Salima Jiwani, individually as the special administrator of the Estate of Nazir Jiwani, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Oct. 23 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Drs. Samman Shahpar, Aleksandar Videnovic, Michael Zost, Stephanie A. Joe, Boaz Avitall and Ali Sovari; and registered nurses K. Lopez, D. Delacuesta and L. Hatch.

According to the complaint, Nazir underwent rehab for debility after meningitis at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago from Sept. 27, 2012 until Nov. 13, 2012, during which time the plaintiff alleges Shahpar, Videnovic and Zost incorrectly diagnosed Nazir's symptoms of a cerebral spinal fluid leak as a cold and the flu, prescribing and re-prescribing cold and allergy medications for more than seven weeks.

Jiwani alleges Nazir in November 2012 was transferred to University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, where his spinal leak was diagnosed. On Nov. 19, 2012, the suit states Nazir was to undergo elective surgery to repair the leak by defendant Joe, but had to be intubated and electrocardioverted during the induction of anesthesia.

Although the surgery was canceled and Nazir was transferred to a critical cardiac care unit, the suit alleges Joe purportedly obtained Nazir's permission to reattempt the leak repair two days later. Jiwani claims critical lab results indicating extreme hyperkalemia were reported to the nurse defendants, but were not relayed to the treating physicians.

On Nov. 21, 2012, the surgery was attempted again, and Jiwani became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest, according to the suit. The plaintiff says resuscitation was attempted, but Nazir died of cardiac arrhythmias secondary to hyperkalemia.

Jiwani is seeking more than $50,000 in damages and is represented by attorney Mark G. Basile of Basile Law Firm in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court case number: 2014L010996.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt and it represents only one side of the story.