Credit: By santypan/Shutterstock.com

A Union County jury awarded $4.5 million on April 6 in a medical malpractice suit, Ayala v. Friedlander, M.D., over errors in a man's spinal surgery.

But the plaintiff, Carlos Ayala, will recover $2.25 million because of a high-low agreement that the lawyers entered after closing arguments. The high was $2.25 million, and the low was $525,000.

Ayala's suit claimed a March 2011 lumbar fusion surgery performed by neurosurgeon Marvin Friedlander and orthopedic spine surgeon Douglas Bradley deviated from the accepted standards of care because a pedicle screw was placed in the wrong location. The suit also claimed Friedlander deviated from the standard of care after surgery by failing to make timely diagnosis and treatment of the mispositioned screw.