$8.125M Verdict After Radiologist Spent 80 Seconds on X-Ray Hiding Stage I Lung Cancer

On August 9, 2013, Althea Wright, then 62, arrived at the emergency room of MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, Illinois, with fatigue, shortness of breath, anemia, and a rapid heartbeat. An ER physician ordered a chest X-ray, among other tests. The radiologist on duty, Dr. Palmer J. Blakley, reviewed the film and documented no abnormality, despite what the plaintiff's attorneys would later show was a visible rounded density in Wright's left lung.

More than a year passed. In October 2014, Wright returned to an emergency room with dizziness and lightheadedness. A second chest X-ray was taken, and this time a radiologist flagged a possible abnormality in the same area. A CT scan and biopsy confirmed squamous cell lung cancer, now Stage III. At the time of the 2013 X-ray, the cancer had been Stage I and, per trial evidence, surgically curable.

Wright underwent four months of chemotherapy and radiation. She died on March 2, 2015, at age 64. Her family filed suit against the estate of Dr. Blakley, who had since died, and against Unimed Ltd., the diagnostic radiology practice tied to her work. During litigation, evidence surfaced that Dr. Blakley had spent approximately 80 seconds reviewing Wright's 2013 X-ray film. She later acknowledged, according to case records, that fatigue was the most likely explanation for the miss. The suit was brought under the Illinois Survival Act and Illinois Wrongful Death Act on behalf of Wright's estate and her children.

Levin and Perconti attorneys John Perconti, Michael Bonamarte, and Daniel Goldfaden tried the case. On December 18, 2019, the Cook County jury returned a verdict of $8.125 million. No appellate reduction of the verdict has been reported in public court records or trade press coverage.