Diagnosis delay cost Woodstock man his life, lawsuit says

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Sherry Russell of Woodstock believes her husband Charles would be alive today were it not for the “medical malpractice” of HealthAlliance Hospital, River Radiology and a Kingston radiologist, her lawyer said Saturday.

In a malpractice lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Ulster County on Friday, Sept. 11, Russell claims a one-year delay in the diagnosis of her husband’s lung cancer cost him his life, her attorney, John Fisher, said.

HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus, River Radiology and Dr. Timothy Madden, all of whom are named as defendants in the suit, could not be immediately reached for comment.

HealthAlliance Hospital’s parent company, Westchester Medical Center Health Network, did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls made late Friday afternoon. In the past, it has been the hospital’s policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Friday’s lawsuit comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed by Russell on Sept. 4 against HealthAlliance Hospital and a medical records firm called Ciox Health. The Sept. 4 lawsuit pertains to their refusal to provide her with her late husband’s medical records and contends the defendants systematically overcharge for such documents, Fisher said at the time. 

Sherry Russell began trying to obtain her husband’s records after he died of lung cancer on Oct. 28, 2019. Fisher said Charles Russell was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in March 2018. But Sherry Russell later learned an X-ray from a year prior showed a mass on her husband’s lungs. The small mass was visible and would have been operable in 2017, but Charles Russell was never told of its existence, Fisher said.

The 2017 chest X-ray was performed as part of a “routine preoperative” clearance procedure, Fisher said.

A year later, the lung cancer had grown and spread to other parts of Charles Russell’s body. After his diagnosis in 2018, he went through months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment before dying of a “totally preventable condition” in October 2019, Fisher said.

“In all likelihood, he would have been alive to this day,” had the mass been diagnosed in 2017, Fisher said. That determination has been corroborated on behalf of his client by “one of the best radiologists in the world who has reviewed the films,” he said.

“This is about a delay in the diagnosis of lung cancer of 12 months that cost a man his life,” Fisher said.

After delivery of the lawsuit, defendants must answer the charges and both sides will “exchange discovery” before a trial date can be set. Fisher said he hopes to have settled the case within 18 months.

He said his firm never agrees to confidential settlements. “I think it doesn’t serve the public interest … [or] improve the quality of medical care in the future if our lips are sealed,” he said.

“It’s not just about money, it’s about improving the quality of care,” Fisher said.

Source: Daily Freeman By: Tania Barricklo

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