Stroke Victim Misdiagnosed

Walkup partner Doris Cheng, medical negligence counsel Christian Jagusch, M.D., J.D., and associate Ashcon Minoiefar, combined to obtain a Sacramento jury verdict in the total amount of $15,308,604 after a three-week trial on behalf of a 23-year-old college student. The client became unresponsive at home and was taken by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center. The Emergency physicians considered stroke as a differential diagnosis but did not activate the hospital’s stroke protocol. They instead pursued diagnoses including drug toxicity, seizure disorder, infection, trauma, and electrolyte abnormality. Mr. Beaver was ultimately seen by 10 different physicians, none of whom diagnosed his stroke until a day later when an MRI showed damage to three lobes of the left hemisphere of his brain. As a result of the delay in treatment, our client suffered major neurocognitive injuries including the inability to form and express complete sentences, difficulty with processing and sequencing, and restrictions in the use of his right hand.