Maine: $1 Million Jury Award for Failure to Diagnose Cancer

PORTLAND, ME — A Maine Sunday Telegram reports that a "Cumberland County jury awarded a Harpswell woman and her husband $1 million Friday in a medical malpractice suit..." for failure to diagnose her cancer. She had complained of chronic pain.

According to the article, compensatory damages to the patient were $700,000, her husband was awarded $300,000, and an addition $160,000 was for medical costs. For more information, read the article on pressherald.com.

New York Considers Change in Statute of Limitations for Medical Negligence Lawsuits

ALBANY, NY — A group of cancer patients and victims families in New York is pressing the legislature there to revise the malpractice laws to change the start date of the 2 1/2-year statute of limitations on medical negligence lawsuits from the date of discovery instead of from the time the medical mistake is made.

Read more on the Legislative Gazette: Patients should have more time to file malpractice suits, say advocates.

Las Vegas, Nevada: Med Mal Jury Award Is $2.5M

Las Vegas ReviewJournal reports that a Clark County District Court jury awarded $2.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The suit contended that a physician and nurse were negligent and in not diagnosing a women's cancer. According to the report:

"Nevada caps malpractice lawsuit awards at $350,000 for pain and suffering. In this case, the jury awarded at least $2 million in "economic losses," or future lost wages."

See full article here. The verdict was reported to be the largest medical malpractice verdict in District Court since 2004, but a correction was printed later indicating a 2007 Clark County jury awarded $20.5 million to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer.

Dana-Farber Lawsuit Over Hospital Infection Death Brings $13.5 Million in Boston

BOSTON, MA - According to a Boston Globe report, a jury has awarded $13.5 million (including interest) to the family of woman who died from "a massive infection by a flesh-eating bacteria" while undergoing experimental cancer treatment from Dana-Farber Hospital. In the medical malpractice trial the jurors decided that the woman's "death could have been prevented if Dana-Farber doctors had investigated the cause of chronic diarrhea that surfaced during an unusual treatment protocol for a tumor behind her knee," said plaintiff's attorney Robert Higgins.

To read the full article, $13.5m awarded in hospital death, click on flesh eating bacteria.

UPDATED as of JAN. 15: You can now access lawyer's trial report with details of the medical malpractice trial on the lawyer's web site, click on: Dana Farber lawsuit.

Two other news articles on this story:
Family in chemo death awarded $13.5M - UPI
Family Gets $13 Million for Woman's Experimental Cancer Drug Death - Fox News