Patient suffers traumatic brain injury after radiologist misreads CT scan, lawsuit claims
A Newton, Connecticut, main has filed suit, claiming he suffered traumatic brain injuries after local radiologist Betty Mathew, MD, allegedly misread his head CT scan.
Plaintiff attorneys also named Advanced Radiology Consultants and Hartford HealthCare as defendants. The case dates to May 2022 when Guglielmo Burdo contacted his primary care provider after suffering a fall, according to a report published Nov. 7 by the News-Times.
He was purportedly referred for a CT exam, interpreted by Mathew, which showed no signs of brain bleeding or other issues. However, Burdo was admitted to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport in July 2022, where he underwent treatment for a buildup of blood around the brain.
“Had Mr. Burdo’s head CT scan on June 1, 2022, been properly interpreted, he would have been immediately hospitalized for the subdural hematomas, a serious and potentially life-threatening condition,” according to an independent rad hired by his attorneys. They charge that he should have been monitored closely, including undergoing serial CT scans to evaluate the stability of the subdural hematomas.
Burdo is seeking compensation for his medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering stemming from the alleged misdiagnosis.
Attorneys representing Mathew and Advanced Radiology—which is based in Shelton, Connecticut, and has eight locations—denied the allegations in a subsequent court filing. The hospital system did the same.
"The safety and well-being of our patients is the highest priority at Hartford HealthCare,” spokeswoman Tina Varona said in a statement. “We cannot comment on pending litigation."
You can read more about the case from the News-Times:
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.