Rinehardt Law Firm successfully represented the estate of a client who passed away due to a missed cancer diagnosis. The $5.2 million verdict was announced by a Franklin County, Ohio jury following a seven-day trial.Rinehardt lawyers John Rinehardt and Melanie Fahey proved that an American Health Network physician assistant failed to perform the proper diagnostic tests when the 35-year-old plaintiff, David Robinson, presented with complaints of blood in his stool. The failure resulted in an eight-month delay in diagnosis of rectal cancer. Once discovered, the disease had metastasized and the husband and father of three young children died less than a year later.
A unanimous eight-person jury found that the physician assistant’s treatment fell below the standard of care and that his negligence was a cause of the Robinson’s death, and included $5.2 million to make up for the harms and losses caused. The verdict included medical expenses, lost income, mental anguish and loss of society for his wife and family.
“A jury verdict can speak volumes about what standards we expect as a community,” said John Rinehardt, lead counsel for the case. “Medical care exists so that diseases are not allowed to freely run their course. Here, the jury’s verdict says it is the provider’s duty to intervene, to do everything possible to stop the patient’s disease.”