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Defense Verdict for Radiologist
In November of 2014, Timothy J. Sheehan obtained a defense verdict in a case of a then 43 year old woman who claimed that a radiologist failed to diagnose an early stage, curable breast cancer tumor, which when found 18 months later had progressed to an incurable Stage IV cancer. The patient underwent a left mastectomy and over the next four years, the cancer later metastasized to her right breast, her ovaries and her spine, requiring another mastectomy, a spinal fusion and ovary removal. During trial, the jury was shocked to learn that yet another cancer recurrence – this time to the patient’s pelvis – had occurred. Plaintiff claimed that the radiologist failed to properly compare her left breast sonogram with mammogram films interpreted by a codefendant radiologist just two weeks before, and “missed” the tumor, which thereafter moved due to “tissue retraction.” Mr. Sheehan called a breast imaging expert who testified that nothing was “missed” on the sonogram and that the numerous cysts seen on the sonogram were both innocuous and were properly correlated with the codefendant’s mammography films. Moreover, the defense maintained that the cancerous tumor was a lobular type that is notoriously difficult to diagnose, never moved and later caused nearby skin to retract towards it, not the other way around. Despite the obvious sympathy that the jury felt for the plaintiff, and her counsel’s request for nearly $7 million during his summation, the jury returned a defense verdict for both the radiologist who interpreted the mammogram and Mr. Sheehan’s client, the radiologist that performed and interpreted the sonogram. (Westchester County Index No.: 13962/10).
