A South Florida woman whose undiagnosed breast cancer spread to her bones won reversal in a medical malpractice case against her radiologist after an appellate court found some defense claims shouldn't have gone to trial.

The trial judge's decision to let a statute-of-limitations question go to trial opened the doors for Dr. Jorge Sowers' attorneys to “inadvertently cloud the issues” and mislead jurors about his former patient's claims, a Third District Court of Appeal panel ruled 2-1 Wednesday.

“The focus of [Sowers]' argument and his repeated misstatements as to what Martin was claiming and when she had actual knowledge of her injury were sufficiently egregious to warrant reversal despite the absence of objection by Martin,” Third DCA Judges Richard Suarez and Vance Salter found. “Those comments went directly to the heart of the case and constituted fundamental error which deprived Martin of a fair and impartial trial.”