A Lehigh County jury has awarded nearly $6 million to the widow of a man who died of a heart attack after his chest pain was allegedly improperly diagnosed as the result of panic attacks.

The jury in Cowher v. Kodali handed up the verdict Monday after more than a week of trial before Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas Judge J. Brian Johnson. The verdict included $2,457,000 in wrongful death and $3,833,000 in survival damages, for a total of $6.29 million, according to the court.

According to court papers, the case stemmed from allegations that Dr. Sobhan Kodali, a cardiologist employed by St. Luke's University Health Network, improperly diagnosed 48-year-old James Cowher as suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, rather than from a heart condition, when he was treated for chest pains. He died of a fatal heart attack several days later while running.

Cowher's attorney, Andrew Youman of Youman & Caputo, who represented Cowher's widow, Karen Cowher, said in a statement that the "tragedy was entirely avoidable."

"Jim Cowher knew he had a family history of heart disease, recognized the warning signs and went to his doctor. He did everything he was supposed to do," Youman said. "His cardiologist did not pay enough attention to the details and missed his symptoms as non-cardiac. That error cost Jim his life. We are gratified the jury saw the truth and reached the correct result."

Laurie Shannon of Kilcoyne & Nesbitt was defense counsel.

Sam Kennedy, a spokesman for St. Luke's University Health Network, said in an emailed statement, "After hearing testimony from a nationally renowned expert from Penn State Medical Center, who agreed that St. Luke's provided the best possible care to the patient, it is disappointing that the jury reached a different conclusion and awarded a shockingly high sum."

"While we respect the decision of the jury, tort reform is very much needed in this country so that awards are within the realm of reasonableness," he said.

According to the plaintiffs' pretrial memo, in September 2015, James Cowher had a single episode of chest pain for which he underwent a stress test that was interpreted by Kodali as negative. Ten months later, Cowher went again to his primary care physician, reporting recurring shortness of breath, nausea and chest pain that radiated down both his arms. The memo said he noted that the episodes were more frequent and severe than previous chest pain he had suffered.

The memo said Cowher's primary doctor noted that the complaints from the 2016 visit were different than those he reported in the 2015 episode, and referred Cowher to Kodali. However, according to the memo, Kodali only did a cursory history, and failed to get details including the nature of the pain, its severity, the frequency of the episodes and the duration.

Although Kodali performed electrocardiogram testing in his office, he did not order any further testing and diagnosed Cowher as likely suffering panic attacks, even though he did not have a history of anxiety or depression, and instead had a family history of coronary artery disease, the memo said.

According to the plaintiff's memo, "there can be no question" that, when Cowher presented to Kodali, what he was in fact suffering from was unstable angina.

On Aug. 23, 2016—40 days after his visit with Kodali—Cowher collapsed while jogging and died. The memo said an autopsy revealed severe cardiovascular disease with 80% to 90% obstructions of his coronary and anterior descending arteries, and moderate obstructions of several other arteries.

The memo said Cowher worked for the Department of Corrections, and, along with his wife, was survived by his 21-year-old daughter.

According to the memo, the plaintiff's expert cardiologist, Dr. Emil Hayek, opined that by relying on the months-old stress test, Kodali did not meet the standard of care and he should have performed additional testing. The plaintiff's expert economist, David Hopkins, also opined Cowher's lost earning ranged between $1 million to $2.7 million.

The defendants noted that the prior stress test showed Cowher had excellent functional capacity, that labs studied done two days before his visit with Kodali were negative for heart damage and that Cowher reported he was able to exercise without having any symptoms.

Youman, however, said the defenses' medical expert admitted Kodali made a false assumption that Cowher's symptoms from the 2016 visit were the same as those from the 2015 visit. He also said the defendants continued to dispute the cause of death, despite the autopsy findings, which, he said was an argument that did not play well before the jury.

"The arguments were just not supportable," Youman said.

According to Youman, the verdict was handed up after an hour of deliberations.