$1.2 Million med-mal verdict

Monday, January 8, 2001
By Marissa N. Scarvel

A local radiology group should have supervised a second-year resident when he was determining the surgical site on a patient's spine, according to a jury that handed down a $1.2 million verdict in a medical-malpractice case in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court late last month.

The jury found Almar Radiology 65 percent responsible and Dr. Mark Jacobson 35 percent responsible for injuries sustained by John Cacurak. Cacurak, 28, was in St. Francis Medical Center in 1990 for the removal of a benign tumor on his spine.

Dr. Francis Feraro was dismissed as a defendant prior to the trial before Judge Joseph Jaffe.

Because the case of Cacurak v. St. Francis Medical Center was filed in 1991, the plaintiff's attorney, Mark W. Tanner, of the Philadelphia firm Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter & Tanner, has filed a petition for $851,564.38 in delayed damages.

Tanner argued that Cacurak was sent to radiology where a radiologist was to mark the area of the spine containing the tumor that was to be surgically removed.

Because no attending radiologist was present that morning, Jacobson, then a second-year resident, performed the procedure and marked the wrong area.

When a neurosurgeon began to expose the area by removing bone and ligament, he found no tumors and realized Jacobson had mismarked the spine.

The tumor was successfully removed but Tanner argued the removal of unnecessary ligament and bone later resulted in an abnormal curvature of Cacurak's spine and more surgery in 1998.

The jury of eight men and four women returned an 11-1 verdict on most issues after seven hours of deliberation.

The plaintiff presented expert testimony from Cacurak's treating chiropractor, David Grossi; Dr. Alexis Shelokov, the surgeon who preformed the spine surgery in 1998; Dr. Todd Siegal; Steven Klepper, Ph.D., a Carnegie Mellon University economics; and Sharon Heinlein, a vocational expert.

Defense attorneys John Conti of Dickie McCamey & Chilcote and Mariann Schleppy of Gaca Matis Baum & Rizza, both Pitsburgh firms, could not be reached for comment.

According to Tanner, the defendants argued that Cacurak's involvement in several work-related and motor-vehicle accidents after the removal of the tumor created the need for the 1998 surgery.

The defendants presented expert witnesses Dr. David Epstein, a radiologist, and Dr. William Welch, a spinal surgeon.

In 1995, a common pleas judge entered a nonsuit in favor of the plaintiff, dismissing the case. The Supreme Court reversed that ruling.

The plaintiff claimed $500,000 in lost earnings and $200,000 in medical expenses. Tanner said the defendants offered a $90,000 settlement and declined to enter a high-low agreement.

He added that Phico, the insurance arrier for the defendants, refused to tender their policy, which limited the settlement offer. Defense attorneys have filed a post trial motion seeking a new trial, Tanner said.