Delay in Diagnosis of Kidney Cancer

Verdict Amount: $1,900,000.00
Attorney: David A. Kulwicki

Description of Case: During the summer of 1996, John Doe, an active 47-year-old husband and father, discovered blood in his urine. He did the right thing by immediately going to his family doctor. His family doctor referred him to a specialist in urology. The urologist, Dr. X, did the standard work-up for this condition. However, when the standard work-up failed to show the cause of the bleeding, Dr. X began treatment “in the blind.” Through detailed medical research, Dave Kulwicki learned that the guiding principle in urology is that blood in the urine is cancer until proven otherwise. Dr. X ignored this basic tenet and failed to establish that the source of Mr. Doe’s bleeding was something other than cancer. In fact, Mr. Doe was in the early stages of a very aggressive form of kidney cancer. Because of the delay in diagnosis, Mr. Doe’s cancer progressed from early, treatable stages to advanced cancer that spread throughout his body. He died the following summer. After a week of trial, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the Doe family in the amount of $1,900,000.00. The insurer paid an additional $350,000.00 in interest.

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