Jury Awards $3M Verdict For A Missed Liver Cancer Diagnosis

Lonnie Kersey was a 67-year-old amputee with a history of blood transfusions and abnormal liver function at the time of his death in 2018…..law.com, Jury Awards $3M Med Mal Verdict to Widow of Phila. Man Who Died From Cancer, P.J. D’Annunzio, 2021

As per the suit, Pisano’s negligence caused a more than 2-year delay in the diagnosis of Mr. Kersey’s prostate cancer, which metastasized to his thoracic abdominal spine and pelvis and caused intractable pain that could not be managed by medications.

Dr. Pisano in his defense said that he had discussed with plaintiff the risks of prostate cancer versus potential complications from biopsy but due to plaintiff’s concern about over-diagnosis and biopsy complications, plaintiff elected not to see a urologist for biopsy. When the PSA level of 203.3 came in, Dr. Pisano saw plaintiff right away and immediately referred him to a urologist for biopsy.

It turned out that the plaintiff had an aggressive, metastatic prostate cancer in September 2015 which would have been incurable and unresectable in 2015.