Professional Negligence Law Reporter
Medicine
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Failure to perform workup for suspicious pulmonary nodule
November/December 2024Doe, who had smoked for 45 years, developed progressive shortness of breath. He consulted a pulmonologist and underwent a CT scan, which allegedly was read by a radiologist as normal. When Doe developed chest pain a year later, a CT scan revealed a pulmonary nodule that had increased in size since the previous scan. Doe underwent pulmonary function tests but not a follow-up CT scan for the nodule.
The next year, Doe was diagnosed as having lung cancer. Despite chemotherapy and radiation, he died of the disease.
Suit against treating radiologists and the pulmonologist alleged failure to fully work up a suspicious lung nodule. The defense argued that an earlier diagnosis would not have changed Doe’s outcome.
The parties settled before trial for $2 million.
Citation: Doe v. Roes, Undisclosed Dkt. No. (Mass. Super. Ct. Suffolk Cnty. 2024).
Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Andrew C. Meyer Jr. and Robert M. Higgins, both of Boston.
