Verdict: $1,200,000

The plaintiff husband sued for the wrongful death of his wife, a forty-one-year-old homemaker, and mother of his seven-year-old daughter, alleging that she had died because the defendant gynecologist did not recommend and obtain a baseline screening mammogram before her before age 40. In February, the patient saw the defendant for a routine check-up and her breast examination was negative. In September, she saw an internist for heartburn who ordered a mammogram which detected a 3.0 cm malignant breast mass. Despite a radical mastectomy which revealed four positive lymph nodes, she died one year later.

The plaintiff's counsel argued that a baseline screening mammogram at age 40 would have likely detected her asymptomatic breast cancer one to two years earlier when she could have been cured with diagnosis and treatment.

Estate of Baierle v. Matviuw, M.D.