Court Revives Case Against Quest Diagnostics: In her New Jersey medical malpractice action, plaintiff Maryanne Cenni alleged that Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings and its employees (collectively LabCorp) failed to properly interpret plaintiff’s annual cervical cytology (Pap smear) slides, leading to a delay in the diagnosis of plaintiff’s cervical cancer until March 2015, by which time it had already advanced to stage four.
Plaintiff’s expert pathologist, Dr. Michael W. Kaufman, reviewed the 2013 and 2014 slides taken during plaintiff’s annual exam by her gynecologist, Dr. Gary Brickner. Dr. Kaufman opined to a reasonable degree of medical and pathologic certainty, LabCorp’s findings that both slides were read as “‘negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy’ . . . [, were] well below acceptable standards of care in the appropriate reading of Pap smears and [we]re each negligently diagnosed.” Even though he had not seen the slides taken by Dr. Brickner during plaintiff’s 2012 examination, Dr. Kaufman also suspected that given the advanced status of cancer cells seen on the 2013 slide, it was probable that plaintiff’s 2012 Pap smear slide would also reveal malignant cells.
Plaintiff filed her initial New Jersey medical malpractice complaint in February 2017, claiming LabCorp’s negligence in reading the 2013 and 2014 slides delayed diagnosis of her cervical cancer; the complaint also included claims against fictitiously-named parties. In particular, the sixth count of the complaint alleged a fictitiously-named cytotechnologist employed by LabCorp misread plaintiff’s October 24, 2012 Pap smear slides.
In fact, the 2012 slides were not submitted to LabCorp but rather to Quest Diagnostics, Inc., and interpreted by cytotechnologists identified only as defendants GMT, CT (ASCP), and MDC, CT (ASCP) (collectively, Quest). Dr.
Kaufman issued a supplemental expert report shortly after examining the 2012 slides and similarly opined Quest’s finding that the slides were “‘negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy’ . . . fell outside of, and below, acceptable professional or occupation standards or treatment practices.”
Plaintiff’s second amended complaint, filed October 31, 2017, named Quest and its cytotechnologist employees as defendants, alleging they had misread plaintiff’s 2012 Pap smear slides, and their negligence had contributed to the delay in diagnosing plaintiff’s cervical cancer. Before filing an answer, Quest moved to dismiss the complaint,
contending it was filed beyond the applicable two-year statute of limitations (SOL), N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2(a), and plaintiff had not acted diligently, allowing her to benefit from the fictitious-party rule, Rule 4:26-4. The trial court granted Quest’s motion to dismiss, and the plaintiff appealed.
The Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division held in its unpublished Per Curium opinion dated May 23, 2023: “Without an expert’s review, an objectively reasonable plaintiff would not have known that the cytotechnologists were negligent in their interpretation of the 2012, 2013 or 2014 slides, and that all three negative lab reports reflected that
negligence. This case involves issues of complex medical causation. It is not just about the misdiagnosis of plaintiff’s specimen slides, but rather about the effect of any delay caused by the negligent interpretation of those slides on the
progress of plaintiff’s cervical cancer. Regardless of which lab conducted the analysis of plaintiff’s 2012 sample slides, it was not until January 2017, when Dr. Kaufman reviewed plaintiff’s 2013 and 2014 slides, that plaintiff’s cause of
action accrued, and only Dr. Kaufman’s review of those slides implicated the potential for the earlier 2012 slides having been misread. Objectively, only then was Quest a potentially responsible party … Reversed and remanded.”
Source Cenni v. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Docket No. A-1923-20.
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