Danbury Hospital, 24 Hospital Ave., Danbury. Courtesy photo

A Danbury Superior Court jury Wednesday awarded $2.7 million to the family of a woman who died from lung cancer after allegedly being misdiagnosed with inflammation of the pancreas.

Following a two-week trial, the six-person jury deliberated for two and a half days before rendering its verdict in favor of the estate of Gail Ingram.

The jury in the medical malpractice case heard testimony that Dr. Barbara Blanco, who worked as a radiologist for Danbury Radiological Associates, botched the interpretation of a September 2012 test that showed Ingram had a suspicious one-centimeter nodule on the base of her right lung. It heard that Blanco instead told Ingram she had an inflammation of the pancreas. That was the only finding Blanco gave Ingram, who died in June 2014, less than two years after the misdiagnosis.

Ingram's relatives filed an amended lawsuit last December.

“Part of our theory is that she got tired, overworked and careless. She committed malpractice in this case,” said Steven Errante, a partner with New Haven's Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante and one of the Ingram estate's two attorneys on the case.

Blanco, now a radiologist for the Carmel, New York, branch of CareMount Medical, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. In court filings, the defense said any allegations of malpractice on the part of Blanco would have to be proved by the plaintiffs.

“We believe it came down to a radiologist having to view approximately 15,000 images per day, and that is from her own testimony,” Errante said Thursday. “This cancer appeared on three to nine images. We think she missed it because of the amount of work she was required to do on a daily basis.”

The next time Ingram appeared at Danbury Hospital was in April 2014 when she complained of abdominal pain, according to the lawsuit. That visit was 19 months after Blanco allegedly missed the opportunity for a diagnosis, plaintiff counsel said.

“By this time, that suspicious nodule had turned into a four-centimeter metastasized mass,” Errante said.

Ingram was officially diagnosed with large-cell neuroendocrine, a type of lung cancer, on May 7, 2014. The 61-year-old died June 12, 2014.

Errante said if Ingram had been properly diagnosed in 2012, she “would have had the lower lobe of her right lung removed right away and she would have had chemotherapy.”

Dr. Paul Bader, a New York University oncologist and one of the plaintiff's experts, testified at trial that a proper diagnosis would have given Ingram a 70 percent to 88 percent chance of survival.

It's up to defense attorneys to decide whether to appeal the verdict to the Connecticut Appellate Court, and Errante expects them to do so.

Rich Tynan and Tim Grady, attorneys with Hartford's Halloran & Sage, represent Blanco and DRA. Neither attorney responded to a request for comment Thursday.

Errante said Ingram's widower, Joseph, and their two children testified at trial.

“I think what swayed the jury was a combination of the testimony of our experts and the testimony of the husband,” Errante said. “There was tremendous sympathy for him and their two children. Joseph Ingram talked of how he and his wife used to sit on the porch on the rocking chair together and watch the sun go down. Now, that chair is empty.”

Also testifying for the plaintiff was radiologist Kyunghee Cho of New York University, who, Errante said, told jurors that the images of the suspicious nodules “would have required reporting and further investigation.”

Before trial, Errante made a demand for $1.8 million. The defense did not make a counteroffer. “I was very surprised by that,” Errante said.

Assisting Errante was his colleague, partner Marisa Bellair.