Illinois Radiologist Error Results in $1.7 Million Settlement – Tariq v. Naperville Radiologist, S.C., et al.

Oftentimes cancerous tumors are recognized in the process of investigating another medical problem. For example, a woman presents complaining of weight loss and an exam reveals breast cancer. Because early diagnosis of cancer can drastically improve the patient’s survival rate it is important that physicians capitalize on these opportunities.

In Tariq v. Naperville Radiologist, S.C., et al., 09 L 156, the plaintiff brought an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit against Edward Hospital and its radiologist for failure to diagnose cancer. The plaintiff claimed that the radiologist had failed to comment on an area of abnormality in her abdominal area on a chest CT scan. The CT scan was being taken as part of the plaintiff’s screening for TB and was not told anything about the abnormal results.

Over the course of the next year the plaintiff began to experience weight loss and became fatigued. She returned for further workup, at which point a CT showed a 16 cm. abdominal tumor. In addition, the tumor had metastasized to other organs, including the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and colon.

The main issue in the plaintiff’s medical negligence claim was that the delay in the cancer diagnosis had affected her long-term survival prognosis. Involved in the Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit were the hospital where the CT scan was taken and the radiologist who allegedly committed the radiology error by misreading the scan. As terms of the medical malpractice settlement the radiologist and his doctors group paid $1.6 million while the hospital paid the remaining $100,000.

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling Illinois radiology error lawsuits for over 30 years, serving those areas in and around Cook County, including Darien, Oak Lawn, Arlington Heights, and Deer Park.