$3 Million Recovery: Failure to Diagnose Meningitis and Brain Infection

Medical Malpractice

The 44 year-old patient had a brain infection (listeria encephalitis with meningitis) which was not diagnosed by an emergency room physician, nor by a neurologist. The ER physician failed to consider the possibility of a neurological infection despite neurological symptoms (double vision and one eye pointed inward toward his nose) and an elevated temperature. A lumbar puncture done at the ER would have lead to the diagnosis and allowed early antibiotic treatment to arrest the progress of the infection. A neurologist who saw the patient the next day misread an MRI scan and concluded in error that his patient had multiple sclerosis.

After a four day delay, the untreated bacterial infection had grown, almost doubling in size, causing permanent and disabling injury, resulting in the inability to walk and difficulty speaking. The patient is no longer able to independently perform the normal activities of daily living. After years battling through the court system, the recovery in this action will allow this honorable man to move out of his mother’s apartment and obtain the care necessary to live in his own residence. The recovery will also pay for any necessary future medical care, including possible future surgeries to alleviate tremors and other consequences of the misdiagnosis.

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