M.D. at North Cypress Med Center failed to make ‘simple, straightforward’ diagnosis
HOUSTON, Oct. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — A district court jury has awarded $4.2 million in a medical malpractice case – a sizable verdict for such cases in Harris County – to a woman whose husband died after a suburban Houston doctor misdiagnosed him.
An autopsy showed that 46-year-old Lancer Windrum died of complications from a buildup of spinal fluid in the brain. Evidence showed that emergency room doctors properly diagnosed Mr. Windrum’s condition, which is typically treated with an implanted drainage tube. However, Dr. Victor Kareh at North Cypress Medical Center rejected that diagnosis and failed to provide this standard, lifesaving treatment.
“This was a simple, straightforward diagnosis backed up by an unambiguous MRI. Dr. Kareh was breathtakingly negligent,” says Wade H. Whilden Jr., partner at Hicks Thomas LLP and attorney for Mr. Windrum’s wife, Tracy, and their three children.
The verdict was delivered Friday, Oct. 11, in Harris County’s 133rd District Court before Judge Jaclanel McFarland and was unanimous as to Dr. Kareh’s liability.
Hicks Thomas partner Stephen M. Loftin says he believes that medical malpractice “verdicts over $1 million have been rare in Harris County since tort reform capped noneconomic damages 10 years ago.”
