Judge pushing for settlement in West Suburban Medical Center legal fight 28%
By Kaitlin Washburn32%
7/15/2026, 12:18:53 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 10 faulty reasoning types, including Loss Aversion, Pessimism Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 24.9% saturation with 102 hits. Analysis detected 331 faulty-reasoning hits from 410 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.8% and a BS Rank of 28% (15,837 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.40% of the article peer group.
The negotiations to reopen Oak Park's West Suburban Medical Center drag on in a Cook County courtroom as the judge on the case grows increasingly frustrated with both sides of the dispute.
The legal battle between the hospital's two owners began when they both sued each other back in April.
West Suburban's CEO Manoj Prasad and the hospital’s landlord Rathnakar Reddy Patlola turned foes when Prasad abruptly shut down the Oak Park hospital in March.
Patlola filed a lawsuit to wrest control of the hospital from Prasad.
That case is currently before Cook County Circuit Judge Patrick Stanton.
After over two months of public hearings and closed-door meetings, Stanton appeared to be fed up with the case during a Tuesday hearing.
West Suburban Medical Center’s closing triggered a legal battle between its owners
“Let’s see if the parties here can come to an agreement,” he said to the lawyers representing Prasad and Patlola.
One of Prasad's previous lawyers, Martin Tasch, withdrew last week.
Howard Brookins, a former Chicago alderperson, is now representing Prasad.
"You've stepped onto a moving train," Stanton told Brookins Tuesday.
Lawyers for Patlola filed a motion Friday to press Prasad's legal team to accept a settlement agreement that was apparently finalized in late May.
The motion, which offers few details of that settlement, accuses Prasad of delaying the process.
The hospital's condition is "actively deteriorating, with West Suburban Medical Center being subject to occupancy restrictions from the Village of Oak Park and ComEd threatening to shut off electricity," the motion reads.
"[T]here is a legitimate threat that the subject Hospitals will never reopen and the hospital properties fall into a state of disrepair, which will result in irreparable harm to [Patlola]."
The motion states that the settlement agreement would involve a third party taking control of the hospital from Prasad.
In court on Tuesday, Brookins said he is still getting up to speed on the case and did not have a response to the motion.
He also has yet to read through the settlement agreement his predecessor was working on with Patlola's lawyers.
The lawyers will appear again before Stanton Friday during a private settlement conference.
Meanwhile, West Suburban and its sister institution, Weiss Memorial Hospital, could lose power Wednesday due to unpaid electric bills.
Stanton declined to intervene in the issue Tuesday.
‘Where do they go?’
What West Side patients face after their hospital closes.
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100%flagged-word coveragePatrick Stanton
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