The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
A Circuit Court jury has awarded a woman $2.5 million, deciding that her debilitating stroke was a result of complications caused by a doctor's misdiagnosis, lawyers involved in the case said.
The award will be reduced to $1.65 million under a Virginia law capping medical malpractice awards, the lawyers said.
Carol Johnson, now 52, suffered brain damage and can't work, said her attorney, Barry Taylor of Virginia Beach. She was a secretary and bookkeeper.
"The jury was very inflamed," Taylor said Thursday. "We only asked for 2 million, and they came back with 2.5."
Johnson had undiagnosed diverticulitis, a type of inflammation of the intestinal wall. She suffered spreading infections and eventually required surgeries.
She was a patient of Dr. Eleanor Deguzman-Berube and the Atwood Family Medical Center in 2003. Dante Filetti of Norfolk, Deguzman-Berube's attorney, said they believed the care given was appropriate but won't decide for weeks whether to appeal.
"Dr. Deguzman is disappointed," Filetti said. "We think the verdict was incorrect."
The jury's decision came Wednesday evening after a seven-day trial.
Virginia's two largest medical malpractice awards in 2009 were in Northern Virginia - $7.4 million in Spotsylvania County and $7 million in Alexandria, said Alan Cooper, news editor of Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Both amounts were reduced to the state cap.
"It's very uncommon these days," Taylor said. "A lot of people have turned against malpractice claims because it's in the news, with health care."
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Even doctors are human
I think there's more to this story and case that we are not privvy too, or is not included in the story. Very unfortunate for the woman with the stroke, and everyone else involved.
We've been Atwood patients since he started his practice, and I've seen a lot of doctors in my time. Atwood's staff is the most caring, compassionate, and thorough, as well as professional staff I have seen.And I am very hard and tough with my doctors, expecting the best. I found the best with Atwood, and I feel for all those involved. They really care about their patients. I will continue to choose Atwood.
I do not know many of the
I do not know many of the facts of this case, but in my day people did not look at to court system as a means of personal enrichment. We did not sue each other. We were too busy making a living. We respected other people's property just as we hoped they would respect ours. Going to court to get the judge to take money away from someone who had worked hard to earn it and then turn around and give it to you was almost unthinkable. Most people simply did right by each other. Not so much today. Government has simply become a tool by which one person plunders the property of another.
Well the sad fact is doctors
Well the sad fact is doctors are wrong alot of the times. So why then do they have to want so much money to play like they know? Why are you cured when the insurance company says you are? Why do med's cost so much? I just had a heart attack last month with no insurance. This will really devistate all that my wife and I have worked for. We simply won't live long enough to pay these bills.
Bureaucrats in Washington
Down with gubmint bureaucrats in Washington intruding in our lives! Up with gubmint bureaucrats in Washington arbitrarily setting restrictions & limitations on peoples' ability for recompense. Down with gubmint bureaucrats in Washington intruding in our lives! Up with gubmint bureaucrats in Washington limiting peoples' rights to trial by jury. Mud, thou are not clear.
Nonsensical
That's a nonsensical comparison since civil court is inherently a government function.
I agree
I find it nonsensical that the "Less Gubmint Intrusion" crowd demands that nameless gubmint beuracrats restrict & intrude on the peoples' ability to seek recourse in court.
Repeating doesn't help
Just repeating the same invalid argument doesn't help it. If you want to argue the court system is not an entity of the government then go ahead. There is little difference if you appeal to a politician to vote you money or a judge to declare you money.
The missing element in this story
Where is the negligence? If there was any, I don't see it in the story.
Yes, a terrible thing happened. Yes, it is possible the Dr. made a wrong diagnosis. But being wrong is not necessarily negligence. Even with modern diagnostic aids, diagnosis often comes down to the most likely of several possibilities. So, unless indicated testing was not done, or a change was not made when the first diagnosis was shown to have been wrong, this is simply an error, not negligence.
We go to a physician not for infallibility, but for his/her best professional judgment. Sometimes physicians will be wrong, and bad things happen, but that is NOT necessarily negligence and there is NO MALPRACTICE in the absence of negligence.
If negligence cannot be proven, then the proper award would be $0, regardless of how much compassion we might feel for the injured.
Not enough information
There's not enough information in those couple paragraphs to make a judgment. That's actually the opposite problem with the jury where they through tons of information at people with no education to understand it.
These cases are really decided on irrational arguments such as appeals to sympathy, spite, and other manipulated emotional reactions. These cases should really be decided by a panel of doctors that can actually understand the material.
Wrong!
Absolutely the last thing you want is for physicians to police themselves. They circle the wagons and will never admit if another MD is wrong, because they can see themselves in the same position. Medicine is NOT an exact science, and two people with the same problems can have different outcomes, but the solution is NOT to turn these cases over to MDs. I mediate a surgical review program where doctors have to peer review adverse outcomes, and even in gross negligience, they always give the offending MD the benefit of a doubt, even though some cases are clearly malpractice or negligient. Yeah, let the foxes watch the henhouse.......