Injury: Death of Patient from Stage IV abdominal cancer
Age of Patient at Injury: 55 years old
Result: $775,000 Settlement after Arbitration
Court: Philadelphia, PA
Comment: Our client was a 55 year old woman diagnosed with advanced (stage IV) abdominal cancer. It was known at the time of her fibroid surgery that she had an advanced cancerous tumor and that it was unlikely that she would ever be cured following her diagnosis. Most law firms would not take such a case, however, the Lewis Law Firm is different. We focused upon the fact that the Doctors and Cancer Hospital to which she was referred did not provide her with any specific treatment instead opting for a “wait and see” approach. The Defendants argued that she was going to die anyway so that any malpractice in her medical care did not matter. This is, sadly, a common defense in such cases and one with which we take issue. We were able to achieve this Settlement for the loss of 2 years of the patient’s life through persistence and through strong medical experts who argued that she could have survived an additional 2-3 years with surgery and proper cancer treatment with chemotherapy. While our client died during the course of this litigation her husband continued to honor her. Arbitration was successfully used to show the Defendants that the patient’s life had more value than they considered, resulting in this settlement.