Personal Injury Law

$4 Million Award Upheld in Medical Malpractice Case

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

A state?s Supreme Court has upheld a $4 million award given to the family of a woman misdiagnosed with cancer. The woman was then given a lethal dose of painkillers. The court did throw out the $500,000 awarded in punitive damages to the woman?s family. The medical malpractice suit was brought by the daughter of the victim against the Hospice and the physician. The Hospice had settled their medical malpractice suit earlier for $1 million. The victim had been diagnosed in 2001 with pancreatic cancer and was sent to a hospice where she died about a month later. It turns out that the woman never had cancer. The victim had received massive doses of painkillers at the hospice for cancer, which an autopsy showed she never had. To read the full story, click here.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on October 26, 2008 (boomark / email).