Attorney obtained a defense verdict for a Pulmonary/Critical Care group after an 11 day trial

Attorney obtained a defense verdict for a Pulmonary/Critical Care group after an 11 day trial. The jury deliberated seven hours before returning a verdict against the co-defendant hospital, while finding no negligence on the part of the three physician defendants and two medical group defendants. The plaintiff, a 47 year old part-time classical pianist presented to the emergency room complaining of an inability to speak coherently, believed to be caused by three small ring-enhancing lesion in his brain, which led to a presumptive diagnosis of lung cancer vs. infection. Our group's physician employee, a pulmonologist, was consulted to evaluate the lung lesion while a neurologist and oncologist continued efforts to diagnose and recommend treatment for their presumptive diagnosis of lung cancer. Pathology, however, indicated normal lung tissue. When this result was placed on the chart our physician employee had signed off and the attending neurologist had transferred care to a hospitalist. The hospitalist recognized the non-diagnostic nature of the initial biopsy and ordered a second biopsy on an outpatient basis and discharged the plaintiff, which confirmed the absence of lung cancer, thus making infection the most likely diagnosis. However, the pathology report was never transmitted by the hospital lab to any of the involved physicians and seven days following discharge, plaintiff was readmitted to the hospital suffering from severe aphasia caused by the three brain lesions which now had grown 20-30 times their original size. As a result, the plaintiff suffered from a permanent substantially reduced ability to understand and speak and inability to play piano professionally. Plaintiffs claimed the doctors were negligent in signing off the case before obtaining a definitive diagnosis. Our defense centered on the argument our doctor was a consultant and regardless of the biopsy results, would not have been involved in the treatment of either cancer or infection. A jury found the hospital negligent and awarded alarge sum for the future medical costs (life care plan) and economic loss.