Delayed Diagnosis Results in $1.1M Settlement

Pittsburgh, PA: The estate of a man whose death resulted from malpractice, specifically a failure to diagnose an esophageal rupture, has recovered $1.08 million as a result of their medical malpractice suit against Tyler Memorial Hospital's emergency room.

In 1999, Michael Scarp, then 55 years old, went to the Tyler ER presenting with vomiting and chest pains. The doctor present, Dr. Daniel Coster, ordered tests to determine if he had an infrapulmonary effusion (fluid in the pulmonary cavity). The doctor found nothing wrong and sent Mr. Scarpa home. However, two days later Mr. Scarpa collapsed and died.

The family learned that another doctor looked at the tests and suggested it was an effusion, but this came too late. The family claimed that the doctors failed to follow the hospital's "X-ray over-read policy" and they failed to ask about his esophageal surgery two years prior, which may have saved his life.

The hospital and two doctors were found 90-percent liable and Scarpa was found 10-percent liable for not telling the doctors about his prior surgery, and the jury's $1.2 million award was reduced as a result.