Jury Awards $2.45 Million in Medical Malpractice Case

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A Connecticut jury has awarded the estate of Margaret Mueller $2.45 million for failing to diagnose the correct form of cancer. Mueller was treated for years for ovarian cancer, when, in fact, she had cancer of the appendix. As a result of the wrong diagnosis, Ms. Mueller suffered through painful cancer treatments while the cancer in her appendix was left untreated and continued to grow, eventually claiming her life.

Margaret Mueller and her partner Charlotte Stacy brought a civil lawsuit against Dr. Iris Wertheim and Isidore Tepler in 2006. The case drew attention partly because it was the first of its kind in Connecticut in that it brought a loss of consortium claim on behalf of a homosexual couple. The consortium claim was dismissed because the couple was not married at the time. Connecticut’s civil union law was passed in 2005 and gave homosexual couples the same rights to sue as heterosexual couples.

Holly Haines
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