Our client, 69 years old, went to a Chicago area hospital emergency room complaining

of hiccups and stomach pain.  He was discharged home.  Two days later, he returned to

the same emergency room with the same complaints.  He saw a different emergency room doctor

and was discharged home.  No CT of the abdomen was ordered on either visit.  Two days later,

he was found unconscious at home and taken back to the same emergency room.  He died the next day from a small bowel obstruction

caused by an incarcerated inguinal hernia, conditions that would have 

shown up on a CT of the abdomen.

Our client was never married and had no children.