Maine High Court Rejects Hospital’s Appeal in Deadly Cancer Diagnosis

A Maine man who was awarded $200,000 by a jury in his malpractice suit filed after a doctor mistakenly told him he had an aggressive and fatal form of cancer won’t have to face another trial.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that the verdict delivered in favor of Wendell Strout, of Greene, last year in Androscoggin County Superior Court should stand.

The Sun Journal reports that Central Maine Medical Center argued in its appeal that the trial judge shouldn’t have allowed a 2009 letter from a hospital executive to Strout which ackowledged that Strout’s doctor should have waited for more conclusive test results before issuing the erroneous diagnosis.

Strout had non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a more treatable form of cancer. He sued because of the “tremendous emotional distress” caused by the misdiagnosis.