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A Burlington County jury on Jan. 30 awarded a gross verdict of $1.7 million, reduced by 30% to $1.19 million based on a preexisting condition, in Wacker v. Magasiny, a medical malpractice suit claiming that an emergency room patient's delayed diagnosis led her to suffer permanent injuries.

On the morning of Sept. 14, 2014, Rebecca Wacker arrived at the emergency room at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly with severe lower back pain and leg weakness, and she was evaluated and released. She returned a few hours later and was then diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome, which affects the base of the spine, her lawyer, Gary Ginsberg of Ginsberg & O'Connor in Cherry Hill, said. She underwent emergency surgery.

Wacker, currently 43, now has numbness in her feet, walks with a cane, wears a urine catheter around the clock, and has lost rectal function, Ginsberg said. Her suit claimed her condition worsened with several hours of delay in her diagnosis, and her husband, Corey Wacker, asserted a loss of consortium claim.

Ginsberg said that, during her first emergency room visit, Wacker was catheterized and produced a large amount of urine, which indicated that there was a serious issue requiring immediate attention.

The defendants generally contended that the diagnosis and result would have been no different had she underwent surgery in the morning, according to Ginsberg.

The suit named, among others, advanced practice nurse Jeffrey Magasiny of Emergency Physicians Associates, a contracted nurse who treated Wacker in the emergency room. According to Ginsberg, Magasiny said he wasn't aware that Wacker had produced a large amount of urine during her first visit to the emergency room.

After approximately three weeks of trial before Superior Court Judge Patricia Richmond, the jury by an 8-0 vote found that Magasiny deviated from the standard of care, and that Virtua Memorial Hospital held Magasiny out to be an agent of the hospital.

The jury, again unanimous, found no cause of action against a registered nurse employed by Virtua who treated Wacker, and no cause of action against an emergency room doctor who didn't treat Wacker but reviewed her chart.

The unanimous panel awarded $1.7 million for pain and suffering, and attributed the injury 70% to Magasiny and 30% to a preexisting condition, making net verdict $1.19 million.

The plaintiffs are seeking a new trial on the loss-of-consortium claim because the jury awarded no damages on that claim, and the defense is seeking a new trial claiming that the plaintiffs failed to show that the treatment delay increased the risk of harm, according to Ginsberg.

Carolyn Sleeper of Parker McCay in Mount Laurel, counsel to Virtua, confirmed the verdict, noting that Virtua is implicated in the verdict only by the jury's finding of apparent authority.

Magasiny's lawyer, Mark Petraske of Dughi Hewit & Domalewski in Cranford, didn't return a call about the case.