A jury in the Palm Beach Circuit Court has ruled that a pathologist from the West Palm Beach area was liable to pay $500,000 in in damages after failing to detect melanoma (a cancer of the skin) in a patient…law.com, Patient Claims Pathologist Missed Melanoma Diagnosis, 2020
James Clyde, a resident of WPB, underwent a biopsy in June 2014 and the interpreting pathologist, Dr. Jefferson Morgan, concluded at the time that the results were negative. However, after 20 months, cancer was detected in the same area that had been tested in 2014. Subsequent to this, James Clyde sued the pathologist Morgan, alleging that he misread the biopsy back then and this had caused at least a 20-month treatment delay that could have otherwise saved him the mental and physical suffering and treatment expenses.
The defense, on its part had contended that the biopsy was appropriately read and that Clyde’s cancer was such that it was difficult to detect at the time. But the jury sided with Clyde and awarded damages of $500,000.