Failure to Read X-Ray Leads to $2.1 Million Award

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A jury in Philadelphia awarded the widow of a man who allegedly died as the result a doctor's failure to read an x-ray because he had a corporate meeting was awarded $2.185 million in a malpractice suit against St. Joseph's Hospital and that doctor and another emergency room doctor. 


The emergency room doctor had appropriate ordered several lab tests, including X-rays and echocardiograms, but it took almost two hours for some of the tests to be performed, said one of Plaintiff's medical malpractice lawyers.  Worse still, after the x-rays and other tests were prepared and completed, the emergency-room doctors never reviewed them before they were sent to radiology, a practice required by hospital procedure.  The man died that night from a dissecting aortic aneurysm. X-rays that hat would have revealed this condition weren't "interpreted" until the next day when it was too late. 


The defense malpractice lawyers strategy was to blame the victim.  First, the lawyers claimed the man had a history of hypertension and "chronic noncompliance" in taking his blood-pressure medication.  Second, they claimed that could not have saved him even he had been timely diagnosed.   Suffice to say, the jury disagreed.

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This page contains a single entry by Ronald V. Miller, Jr published on May 18, 2009 1:04 PM.

Oregon Raises Limits on Malpractice Lawsuit Awards was the previous entry in this blog.

Ed McMahon's Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Setttles is the next entry in this blog.

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