Photo: Jason Doiy

A Berks County jury has awarded $9.6 million to a 15-year-old girl who sued Reading Hospital for failing to diagnose her cervical cancer in a timely manner.

The trial lasted eight days in the courtroom of Judge Madelyn Fudeman of the Berks County Court of Common Pleas. The jury deliberated over the course of two days. The girl, identified as L.M. in court papers, first went to the hospital in 2014 complaining of vaginal bleeding, but it wasn't until 2016 that she was diagnosed with cancer, at age 11.

Joshua Van Naarden of Ross Feller Casey

"There was a significant delay in diagnosing [L.M.'s] cancer from her initial presentation/complaint of vaginal bleeding in 2014 by her primary care providers. There were multiple missed opportunities to diagnose and treat her cancer at a much earlier time by various providers. [In 2015 she presented to several Emergency Room providers with identical complaints]," the plaintiff's pretrial memorandum said. "This was clearly a very aggressive cancer as noted by the aggressive biology of clear cell cancers as well as the progression of recurrence in this patient. One of the best prognosticator of good outcomes with this type of cancer is the absence of lymph node involvement at time of diagnosis."

"Unfortunately, due to the calamity of errors made by L.M.'s primary providers and at Reading Hospital's Emergency Room, L.M.'s very treatable cancer was permitted to progress unchecked to a very advanced stage," the plaintiff's papers continued. "The care that L.M. has required due to her advanced stage cancer is nothing short of horrific, having to eventually undergo pelvic exenteration, a procedure wherein her bowel, bladder, rectum, anus and vagina were removed. L.M.'s cancer is terminal and she in unlikely to live past her 25th birthday, however she continues to fight the cancer having undergone experimental treatments to prolong her life."

Reading Hospital's pretrial memorandum focused mainly on the chain of events and claimed "Reading Hospital denies that any actions or inactions" by its doctors "constitute negligence and/or that any alleged negligence either caused or increased the risk of harm to LM."

B. Craig Black of Saxton & Stump represents the hospital and did not return a call seeking comment.

Reading Hospital took the position that L.M.'s condition did not require an ultrasound, according to the plaintiff's attorney, Joshua Van Naarden of Ross Feller Casey in Philadelphia, who tried the case with Kevin Harden.

"The jury saw through a defense that was focused on blaming the family and blaming other individuals and recognized that she was just where she needed to be to have her cancer diagnosed at an earlier stage, where it would have made a significant difference for this little girl," Van Naarden said.