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Jury awards $7.5 million in malpractice case
A Spotsylvania jury has awarded $7.5 million in a medical malpractice case
Date published: 4/10/2009
BY JIM HALL A Spotsylvania County jury has awarded $7.5 million to the family of a woman who died after a delayed diagnosis of breast cancer. The jurors ruled against Dr. Donna Gamache, a Fredericksburg family practitioner, in the wrongful-death action. The five-day trial ended April 3, before Circuit Judge David H. Beck. The award is believed to be one of the largest malpractice recoveries in Virginia history and is the second major malpractice award against Gamache. In 2005, a Fredericksburg jury awarded $1.8 million to a Spotsylvania man who claimed that Gamache failed to diagnose and treat a severe spinal condition. Last week's decision will be reduced to the state-mandated malpractice cap at the time of the negligence: $1.65 million. Gamache yesterday declined to comment about the jury's verdict. Jill Jacobson, her Richmond attorney, said no decision has been made on an appeal. "We're looking at all of our options right now," Jacobson said. The jury's decision ended a case that began six years ago when Eleanor Browder, the plaintiff, found a lump, about 1 inch by 2 inches, in her right breast. Browder died of cancer last April before her complaint ever reached trial. Paul Browder, her husband, and her two adult children continued the case after her death. Eleanor Browder was a registered nurse who had worked at Culpeper Regional Hospital. Paul Browder was a longtime mail carrier in Spotsylvania. In recent years, the family had moved to New Jersey, where Browder worked as a school nurse until her death. In March 2003, Browder, then 53, visited Gamache's office at Lee's Hill Medical Associates. Mary Nichols, a nurse practitioner there, ordered a mammogram of the right breast. The test was negative. Both Gamache and Nichols were employees of the practice. Gamache has since opened Lee's Hill Family Physicians. Nichols was originally named as a defendant but settled the case early and was not a part of the trial, according to court records. William Artz, Browder's Arlington attorney, argued that the mammogram results were delivered to Gamache's mailbox at Mary Washington Hospital. Gamache examined them and wrote at the top, "Need chart." "That's where the ball got dropped," Artz said yesterday in a phone interview. "She never got the chart. Nobody did anything more."
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 4/10/2009
A reason all our medical bills are high
(posted by
MrZorro
, Apr. 10, 2009 10:16 pm)
We help pay this settlement. Another big source of medical inflation is that illegal aliens get free emergency room treatment. We, paying customers, have to make up the difference at MWH.
This is why I started seeing another doctor..
(posted by
rach
, Apr. 10, 2009 9:46 pm)
The same doctor made a critical (and almost fatal) error when treating me in 2006. I have a family history of blood clotting disorders, and she put me on birth control without testing to see if I had it as well. (One of the MAJOR warnings with any bc is blood clots!!) 3 months later i was in the hospital with a PE in my lung and a DVT in my leg. Only about 30% of people live through a PE. Now I'm on daily medication and my lung/leg will never function at 100% again.
In this particular case
(posted by
hokisteph5
, Apr. 10, 2009 8:56 pm)
If no facts were missed in the article, I don't see why the family was awarded anything, let alone such a high amount. The now deceased patient had some responsibility for what occurred. I'm glad that the award will be reduced.
So what does $7.5 M do for the family?
(posted by
dr428
, Apr. 10, 2009 8:08 pm)
I think the award could get the same message across if it was $250K. This lottery payment, er I mean award, is nothing more than our clueless courts giving away money as if it had no meaning. Who's going to ultimately pay that $7.5M? No the insurance company or the doctor. John Q Billpayer is footing the bill for this family to live inthe lap of luxury at the expense of their deceased relative. Sick!
Why would
(posted by
fugyou
, Apr. 10, 2009 6:16 pm)
An R.N. who works at a hospital WAIT seven months as the lump is growing every day? I also wondery why she would continue to see a family practitioner instead of a specialist?! If I had a lemon sized lump continuing to grow over a seven month period, everyone I know would think I was negligent to myself by seeing a GP for something like that. Situations like this are a lose/lose for everyone but the lawyer. Very sad.
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