$4,600,000 Jury Verdict for Failure to Timely Diagnose Choriocarcinoma

Partner Carol L. Forte obtained a jury verdict in wrongful death case in Atlantic County, on behalf of a 25-year-old woman who died of choriocarcinoma, a fast-moving cancer that arises from the placenta during pregnancy. Plaintiff alleged that the three defendant obstetrician gynecologists negligently assumed that the woman had become pregnant again and was bleeding as a result of a miscarriage (despite having been on birth control pills). The doctors failed to consider other causes for the bleeding, failed to examine her, and delayed the diagnosis of the cancer by a month. During that time the aggressive cancer grew and spread. Most patients with advanced choriocarcinoma survive, since it is quite curable even after it has spread. However, after prolonged multiple courses of treatment, the woman died. The decedent left a 1.5 year old baby. This case was tried by both Ms. Forte and Partner Kenneth Elwood.