Injury: Death from metastatic (spreading) breast cancer.
Age of Patient at Injury: 41 years old
Result: $1.1 Million Settlement
Court: Lehigh County, PA
Comment: In this sad case, our client’s family doctor did not recommend or refer her patient for surgical consult and biopsy despite presence of a lump. Our client did everything right, including self-breast examination and prompt reporting of her symptoms to her family doctor. Our client also received her recommended mammograms (screening tests for breast cancer). Unfortunately, her mammogram was was also misread as negative for breast cancer. The defense argued that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer and that it was too late to cure her even before it was diagnosed, a common defense in these cases. Our medical experts showed that there were clear violations of care by the family doctor and by the radiologist. We retained additional forensic expert help in this case to examine the medical records of the patient for alterations made after she had been diagnosed. With our medical and forensic experts we showed that these acts of negligence resulted in the lost opportunity for any cure from an aggressive form of breast cancer. Our client did not live to the time of her settlement and died at the age of 43. The Defendants decided to settle with the patient’s family instead of going to trial.