A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury has awarded $7.8 million to the family of a Portland woman whose doctors missed a suspicious mass on her annual breast-screening scans — allowing the mass to balloon in size for two years and the cancer to spread, killing her several years later.
In an 11-day trial that ended this week, jurors agreed that a radiologist at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center was negligent and caused the death of 51-year-old Wendi Lui.
The verdict is rare, lawyers for Lui’s estate and other medical malpractice lawyers said, because many families don’t have the capabilities or know-how to learn of their doctors’ mistakes. On top of that, healthcare systems can be reluctant to admit their mistakes…