Jury awards patient $10.5 million for misdiagnosed testicular cancer
By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle
GALVESTON -- Two Texas City physicians should pay $10.5 million in
damages for failing to diagnose testicular cancer in a patient more than
three years ago, a jury decided Thursday.
The award in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Texas City's
Beeler-Manske Clinic, Dr. John H. Cochrane Jr. and Dr. Salvador Faus
came after a weeklong trial in the Galveston court of state District
Judge Frank Carmona.
The jury found that in May 1997, the physicians failed to diagnose
testicular cancer in Bryan Davidson, 41, said his Houston attorney, Mike
Mallia.
The cancer went undiagnosed for 13 months, after which Davidson, of
Santa Fe, underwent surgeries to remove not only one testicle but also
parts of his lungs, to which cancer had spread, Mallia said Thursday.
Cochrane and Faus had attributed lumps on Davidson's testicle to
side-effects of a vasectomy, Mallia said.
He said that Beeler-Manske physician David Nickeson finally made a
correct diagnosis.
Houston attorneys Richard Law and Robert Scheerer, who represented the
clinic, Cochrane and Faus, could not be reached for comment.
The defendants maintained that Davidson did not develop cancer until
after his May 1997 examination, Mallia said. He added that defense
attorneys did not indicate Thursday whether their clients would appeal
the case.
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated about 15 hours over
three days before returning the judgment of $10.5 million in actual
damages.
Davidson, who is on medical leave after 16 years as a Texas City
chemical plant employee, and his wife, Debbie, also a plaintiff in the
case, did not seek punitive damages, Mallia said.
Had Davidson's cancer been detected early on, he might have avoided
extensive chemotherapy and lung surgery, Mallia said.
After one round of five chemotherapy treatments, Mallia said, Davidson
was declared cancer-free. But the disease cropped up again, he said,
forcing Davidson to undergo harsher chemotherapy.
"Early diagnosis would have meant that he would have had just surgery to
remove that testicle," Mallia said. "Some doctors, conservatively, would
have given just two rounds of chemotherapy just in case something has
metastasized microscopically."
As of September, Mallia said, Davidson had been cancer-free for a year.
He was scheduled for a three-month checkup at Houston's M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center after the trial ended Thursday.