Plaintiff Found To Have Offered Sufficient Expert Testimony In Support of a Delayed Cancer Diagnosis

In the case of Delavern v. Health Services of Clarion, Inc., No. 858 WDA 2024 (Pa. Super. Jan. 6, 2025 Bowes, J., Beck, J., and Bender, P.J.E.) (Op. by Bowes, J.), the court affirmed the entry of judgment against a medical malpractice Defendant in which a jury entered an award of $7.3 million dollars. The case involved a medical malpractice action with allegations of a delayed diagnosis.

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiffs had claimed that a physician’s assistant affiliated with a Defendant incorrectly diagnosed the Plaintiff with a separate condition other than the cancer which was later found relative to the patient. The Plaintiffs alleged that the supervising physician signed off the on the physician’s assistant’s notes without properly reviewing them and also failed to refer the Plaintiff for further screening.

The Plaintiffs claimed that the Defendant’s negligence resulted in a 13-month delay in the Plaintiff receiving a cancer diagnosis, which thereby allegedly allowed the cancer to progress from a curable stage to an incurable one.

On appeal, the Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected a Defendant’s argument that the Plaintiffs’ oncology expert failed to show that the Plaintiff experienced a worse health outcome as a result of a delayed cancer diagnosis.

The trial court and the Superior Court both agreed that the Plaintiff’s expert offered sufficient proof of an increased risk of harm caused by the Defendant’s negligence so as to allow the issuance of causation to go to the jury.

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Source – Article: “Superior Court Rejects Pa. Hospital’s Challenge to $7.3M Med Mal Judgment,” by Aleeza Furman of The Legal Intelligencer (Jan. 6, 2025).