In 2013, a woman sued a hospital that she went to numerous times from 2008 to 2011. At this hospital, the woman underwent numerous exams to search for cervical cancer. None of these exams came back with any readings that would indicate any malignancy. But in fact, the technician that was looking at the results incorrectly.
In 2008, the woman did have early signs of cervical cancer. And since it went untreated, by 2011 the woman’s cancer had reached stage 3. Thankfully, though, this story has two happy endings.
The first is that the woman’s cancer is now in remission, which is great to hear. But the other happy ending is that the woman’s medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital where she received the failed diagnosis was recently finalized, and she was awarded $7.65 million in damages, as well as an additional $2 million in damages for her husband.
A couple of interesting things to note from this story: the first is that the technician was not named in the lawsuit. This was a case directed at the hospital itself. Remember that every case is unique, and depending on the circumstances, you could sue the medical professional, the medical facility, or both — and other parties, if necessary or applicable.
The other factor here is the money. Remember that there are caps that are placed on medical malpractice cases which can affect the awards or compensation that a plaintiff receives, which means that sometimes the amount noted in the case is not actually the amount that the person ultimately gets.
Source: Lake Oswego Press Herald, “Minot woman awarded $7.65 million in malpractice case,” Eric Russell, May 19, 2015