Mary Kay Scott tries Medical Negligence Radiology Case Alleging Failure to Diagnose a Meningioma in the Brain to a Speedy Not Guilty
Mary Kay Scott tried a medical negligence case in Lake County, IL from May 17 to May 23, 2013, and the result was a jury verdict of not guilty in 50 minutes. The case filed in 2011, alleged the defendant radiologist failed to identify a benign meningioma on a CT scan of the sinuses undertaken in September of 2007. The brain tumor was discovered three and one half years later in March 2011, on a brain MRI, once the plaintiff began having memory, balance, headaches, and incontinence issues beginning anywhere from a year to three years later.
The defense of the case hinged on the fact that the CT scan was a focused study of the patient’s sinuses performed for recurrent sinusitis. The plaintiff alleged that on the brain windows there was a finding that was consistent with the meningioma, which arose out of the falx at the top center of the patient’s brain. The defense countered that the alleged finding was artifact that obscured any finding on the brain windows, that the study under-penetrates the brain, and this was not the correct diagnostic test to identify a brain tumor arising from the top of the brain. A further issue in the defense was that the alleged finding on the brain windows was on the opposite side of the brain from where the brain tumor arose and grew.
The plaintiff had a complete recovery to her baseline, but still had issues with memory, headaches, and balance, which were long standing issues for decades, and had led to her quitting work in the early 1980’s. The claim was for loss of a normal life and pain and suffering.