Through mediation, Walkup attorneys secured a $600,000 settlement for a 50-year-old educator and aircraft mechanic whom Kaiser Sacramento doctors failed to diagnose with lung cancer. The patient first contacted Kaiser physicians 22 months before he was properly diagnosed, complaining of a persistent cough that kept him from sleeping. He was prescribed antibiotics over the phone.
The patient suffered through the next year, his condition worsening, believing that he had reactive lung disease. Finally, when he could no longer walk without suffering fatigue, the patient saw his primary care physician, who ordered x-rays, which revealed a large right pleural effusion. By this time, the patient’s tumor, which could have been resected at the time the first x-ray was taken, was completely inoperable. The settlement covered the patient’s personal injury claim, as well as his wife’s loss of consortium claim and any possible wrongful death claims.
