A California jury awarded $11.7 million to a man who sustained brain damage from a stroke after an infection was left untreated.
The Orange County Superior Court jury awarded the money Friday to Joey Crumes, 45, who suffered a stroke after the physicians failed to treat an infection in 2004.
The Los Angeles Times said Crumes presented at the Mission Hospital emergency room in Mission Viejo with an acute headache. He informed the treating physicians that the year before he had an operation for cancer in the right sinus area.
He was sent home with some pain medication and a warning to seek further treatment if his condition did not improve. Five days later, the man fell into a coma and it was discovered an infection had reached his brain.
The resulting massive stroke left him paralyzed on the left side, which forced his confinement to a wheelchair and landed him in the hospital for 11 months.
The lawsuit was filed against Mission Hospital radiologist Charles Aucreman and emergency room physician Dr. Andrew Lawson.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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