Settlement Against Central Maine Medical Center After Four Years of Missed PSA Results Left Patient With Incurable Prostate Cancer

In early 2016, a physician at CMMC's Mechanic Falls clinic examined Michael Whittier, noted an enlarged prostate, and ordered lab work. The results came back showing PSA levels high enough to indicate serious cancer risk. CMMC received those results in January 2016 and did not tell Whittier about them. No follow-up was ordered. No specialist referral was made.

Over the next four years, CMMC physicians saw Whittier at least six more times. The suit alleged that a 2017 upgrade to the hospital's electronic medical records system made the problem worse: CMMC negligently failed to import prior laboratory results, including Whittier's 2016 PSA reading, into the new system's test-results dashboard. The elevated PSA effectively disappeared from the clinical view his providers were using. The negligence continued, the complaint said, through 2020, with the hospital doing nothing to flag or address the unresolved cancer risk.

It was only in May 2020, when Whittier connected with a different CMMC physician via telehealth, that an outside provider's prior notification of the PSA results surfaced. That physician ordered a urology consultation at last. A biopsy confirmed prostate cancer. By then, four years had passed since the first alarming results arrived at CMMC.

Whittier underwent a prostatectomy in late 2021. Surgeons found that the cancer had already metastasized beyond the prostate, making a surgical cure impossible. He began radiation and Lupron injections after surgery. He was informed the disease would likely be fatal.

The Whittiers, joined by his wife Nancy on a loss-of-consortium claim, sued CMMC for medical malpractice, negligent failure to report and follow up on test results, fraudulent concealment, and continuing negligent treatment. CMMC moved to dismiss earlier in 2023; a judge denied the motion, and the case went to trial before a jury in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Monday, September 25, 2023.

Three days into trial, on the evening of Wednesday, September 27, 2023, the parties reached a settlement. The amount was not disclosed. Attorney Benjamin Gideon, who represented the Whittiers, called the damages agreed on "not an insignificant amount" and said his clients were satisfied with the settlement and had accomplished their goal in the courtroom of demonstrating the strength of their case.