On September 27, 2024, an Erie County, Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury determined that a 23-year-old woman’s blindness was due to the medical negligence of the radiologist who allegedly misread her head CT scan in November 2020. The woman had gone to the hospital and was admitted for three days after losing consciousness due to a headache.
According to the woman’s radiology malpractice lawsuit, the radiologist ordered a follow-up MRI scan and shortly thereafter the woman was discharged from the hospital. At home, her headache did not let up which led her to seek hospital care once again several days later. During her second visit to the hospital, she was diagnosed with cerebral venous thrombosis but by the time of the diagnosis, the increasing size of the clot caused her to suffer near total blindness.
The woman contended that the head CT scan had shown visible signs of a cerebral venous thrombosis. The defendant radiologist contended that the CT scan was not suggestive of a cerebral venous thrombosis and that he did not breach the standard of care when he ordered a follow-up MRI scan, which the woman never had.
The Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury determined that the radiologist was 90% at fault and the woman was 10% at fault, and awarded $2.35 million in medical expenses, $3.5 million for pain and suffering, and $1.28 million for loss of earnings.
Approximately 71% of radiologists have been named as a defendant in a medical malpractice case (compared to 51% for all physicians). Delayed or missed diagnoses was the most common allegations (64%) followed by complications from treatment (14%) and poor outcomes/disease progression (12%). About 60% of radiologists said they were “very surprised” about being named as a medical malpractice defendant (compared to 54% for all physicians); 32% were “somewhat surprised;” and, 9% were not at all surprised.
Approximately 42% of radiologists reported that the medical malpractice lawsuit was settled before trial; 14% were dismissed as parties in the case within the first few months; 7% reported the medical malpractice lawsuit was still ongoing (as of 2022); and, 7% reported that the verdict was in their favor. Verdicts in favor of the plaintiffs were most commonly in the amount of $500,000 or less (36%),
These radiologist medical malpractice statistics were based on a survey of 308 radiologists who responded to a 10-minute online survey conducted between May and August 2022.
If you or a loved one suffered harm due to radiologist medical negligence in Pennsylvania or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney or a medical malpractice attorney in your state who may investigate your radiologist medical negligence claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a radiologist medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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