Judgment Based On Delayed Cancer Treatment While Incarcerated: Kahil Johnson (“K. Johnson”) filed a Maryland medical malpractice lawsuit involving the cancer care provided to Thomas Johnson (“T. Johnson”) while he was incarcerated in Maryland, arguing that the three-month delay in providing Zytiga allowed T. Johnson’s metastatic prostate cancer to progress unchecked and caused T. Johnson to experience increased and unnecessary pain during the remainder of his life. K. Johnson contended that Zytiga improved T. Johnson’s symptoms and, if timely administered, would have prevented lasting damage to his quality of life as a result of delayed treatment.
K. Johnson also asserted that the timely administration of Zytiga could have extended T. Johnson’s life expectancy by at least a few months because, per Dr. Dawson, Zytiga has successfully extended the life of other patients with T. Johnson’s condition by one year to two and a half years.
The defendants contended that Zytiga did not work for T. Johnson and more timely treatment would not have reduced his symptoms. They asserted that T. Johnson’s condition did not worsen between September 9, 2016, when Zytiga was first recommended, and December 16, 2016, a week into taking Zytiga. Moreover, they contended that any improvement felt by T. Johnson was at least as much the result of palliative radiation and pain relief medication as from Zytiga.
In its unreported opinion filed on November 2, 2022, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland (“Maryland Appellate Court”) stated: “Relying on the undisputed facts, we cannot find that the circuit court erred in determining that T. Johnson was not harmed as a result of the delayed Zytiga treatment. Pre-incarceration, T. Johnson had developed chronic pain stemming from his metastasized cancer and aborted cryoablation. One month and two months after beginning to take Zytiga, T. Johnson reported the same baseline chronic hip and leg pain during visits to Dr. Mannuel
in January and February of 2017. During the January visit, Dr. Mannuel recommended that T. Johnson begin palliative radiation to reduce his ongoing chronic pain. At a later visit, Dr. Mannuel believed T. Johnson to be “[b]oth subjectively and objectively better,” but he credited the change to “the medication and radiation combination” instead of Zytiga.19
Notably, T. Johnson told his treating physician at UMMC in May of 2017 that his pain significantly improved for about two months as a result of radiation therapy, which had begun in mid-February of 2017. Overall, T. Johnson’s pain was not reduced as a direct result of taking Zytiga. Both Dr. Dawson and Dr. Mannuel agreed that, despite their hope to the contrary, T. Johnson’s cancer and symptoms progressed while using Zytiga. Though T. Johnson’s PSA level stabilized a few weeks into taking Zytiga, the treatment’s overall ineffectiveness was undisputed. Both doctors agreed that Zytiga was ultimately ineffective.”
Source Johnson v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., No. 1736 September Term, 2021.
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