Attorney Sobczak obtained a million dollars settlement for a family of a misdiagnosed patient who’s case was turned down by repeated law firms because patient was called “trouble” patient and “pill seeker” in records.
A primary care provider at a major Boston teaching hospital, in conjunction with her team of extender nurse practitioners, allegedly failed for years to fully investigate and treat the cause of her patient’s pain in the sciatic region. Although the defendants claimed to offer comprehensive evaluation, consultation and medical management to patients through personalized care, in this case, the defendants did not fully investigate the source of the persistent pain and proceeded with only one diagnosis and continued to prescribe pain medication, even though that diagnosis was ruled out by imaging studies. The defendants prescribed pain medications and blamed the patient for not showing up for some appointments. The defendant doctor and her team continued to treat the pain with narcotics and never fully investigated the underlying cause of the symptoms.
The defendants claimed that because the cancer with which the patient was ultimately diagnosed (at a different Boston area hospital) was rare, they were excused from the patient safety rules of differential diagnosis and could proceed with the easier diagnosis only. The defendants took the position that because of the nature of the cancer, the patient’s death was inevitable; therefore, anything they did or failed to do made no difference. Lastly, the primary care provider insisted that she could not care for her patient because in the four year time span she only “saw” the patient once, even though she subsequently conceded that as records indicated, she encountered and could have properly diagnosed the patient over 30 times during that period.
The plaintiff claimed and was prepared to prove at trial that regardless of whether the cancer was rare or incurable, the patient had a right to a timely diagnosis and not having to suffer in pain while not knowing the full extent of her condition. The matter resolved at mediation within weeks of the scheduled start of trial.