Breast Cancer / Wrongful Death
$2.6 million settlement for the family of a woman who died as a result of a delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer. The patient, a 42 year-old mother of two children, had a mammogram that showed abnormalities suspicious for breast cancer. The surgeon ordered a biopsy of the abnormal area of the breast. Before the biopsy, a radiologist attempted to perform a needle localization of the abnormal area of the breast, during which the radiologist could not reproduce the suspicious abnormalities. As a result, the patient was told that the mass had disappeared. A year later, the patient again had a mammogram that showed a highly suspicious density in the left breast. A biopsy performed on this density proved it to be advanced breast cancer. Despite radical mastectomy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the patient ultimately died from metastatic cancer, leaving a husband and two minor children.
