A medical practice must pay $14.4 million to a Connecticut wife and husband after a table collapsed under the latter during an imaging exam.
Jurors reached the verdict on April 5 following three weeks of deliberation, with Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists et al. ordered to pay the hefty sum to James Griswold and his wife, Diana, of Plymouth, Connecticut.
Following the incident, Griswold was reportedly forced to undergo multiple surgeries and he continues to grapple with medical problems 10 years later.
“We’re pleased that the jury rejected the attacks on Mr. and Mrs. Griswold during the trial and recognized the defendants’ responsibility for causing Mr. Griswold’s terrible injuries,” Joaquin Madry, an attorney with Silver Golub & Teitell, said in a statement. “This is yet another example of a jury sorting through a lot of misdirection and finding a just result.”
Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists—which has offices in Bridgeport and Fairfield, Connecticut—did not immediately respond to a Radiology Business request for comment late Wednesday. Along with ACS, co-defendants included cardiologist Michael Logue, MD, and radiologic technologist Joyce Giannelli.
The original inciting incident occurred in July 2014, when 58-year-old James Griswold visited the practice for a nuclear stress imaging test. At the time, he weighed 340 pounds and was 6 feet, 4 inches tall, had previous back problems, and was concerned about the stability of the table. But providers at Advance Cardiovascular Specialists reportedly reassured him that larger individuals had previously undergone the test using the same equipment, according to the complaint.
However, once Griswold climbed on the table, it made a loud popping noise and the head fell to the floor with “sudden force and violence.” He sustained injuries to his spine, neck and back, necessitating three separate surgeries, according to the suit, first filed in September 2016. Griswold subsequently developed a blood clot, leading to a stroke and serious neurological injuries, among other ensuing issues. Today, he is unable to walk independently and is now 100 pounds lighter due to his ailments.
Attorneys later filed the suit, claiming providers ordered the stress test without the proper “clinical indicators to do so.” The jury award includes $3 million in economic damages to Mr. Griswold, $4 million more for pain and suffering, and $2 million to Mrs. Griswold for “loss of consortium.” On top of that, the court added $5.4 million more in prejudgment interest.
Plaintiff attorney Madry told Law.com that the parties had reached a pretrial settlement of $2 million in 2016. However, the practice allegedly ignored this offer until the jury began deliberating, and by then it was “too late.”
He counseled other providers to avoid the same mistake.
“If it’s something that is a fair and reasonable settlement amount, they should seriously consider it because a lot of times once that deadline of 30 days has passed … there’s no going back because of the cost associated with bringing a case like this,” Madry said according to the news outlet.
You can browse more documents from the nearly decade-long case here.
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.