SCRANTON – A local hospital responds that claims of professional negligence levied against it are improper, in a suit alleging the defendants failed to identify and diagnose a Scranton woman’s Stage III pancreatic cancer.
Catherine A. James and William James of Scranton first filed suit in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 11 versus Moses Taylor Hospital, Dr. Jamie Stallman and Dr. Stephen G. Opsasnick of Scranton, Commonwealth Health System, Physicians Health Alliance of Franklin, Tenn., and Radiology Affiliates of Central New Jersey.
According to the lawsuit, Catherine James, an emergency room secretary of 30 years at Moses Taylor Hospital, experienced severe upper abdominal pain on Feb. 11, 2019 and sought admission to the emergency room.
After an ultrasound was taken of her abdomen, it was learned “a hypodense area…which may represent pancreatic cancer, causing obstruction of the common bile duct” was present, yet James was not informed of this diagnosis or of the possibility that she may have pancreatic cancer.
Instead, she was diagnosed with common bile duct dilation, acute hepatitis and obstructive jaundice. An emergency room physician also provided a differential diagnosis of abdominal pain, biliary colic, cholecystitis, pancreatitis, urinary tract infection, pyelonephritis, gastroenteritis, peptic ulcer, gastritis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, diverticulitis or acute myocardial infarction – without including the potential for pancreatic cancer.
Though subsequent medical professionals who examined James, including defendants Stallman, Opsasnick and a litany of others, performed diagnostic tests during examinations and hospital stays in February 2019 which indicated that James may have contracted pancreatic cancer, the suit says that none of the doctors and professionals informed her of that possibility.
Four months later, in June 2019, James returned to the emergency department at Moses Taylor Hospital, complaining of severe abdominal pain that started 10 hours prior. A CT scan was then ordered by the attending physician.
“This study found that, in the pancreas, there was a 1.9 cm area of suspicious low density in the head and neck of the pancreas, adjacent to the common bile duct. This was concerning for a mass and follow-up EUS was recommended,” the suit states.
“Ms. James was charged at 4:08 p.m. to Penn Medicine and diagnosed with the following: Sepsis, ascending cholangitis, epigastric pain, pancreatitis, obstructive jaundice, pancreatic mass (new finding), hypothyroidism and hypertension.”
The pancreatic mass described as a “new finding” was not a new finding, but had been present from the time of her initial hospitalization and had been observed by numerous doctors on numerous occasions.
Upon her request, James was transferred to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on June 4, 2019. When examined by Dr. Kenneth Lee, he noted that a pancreatic mass was missed during diagnostic tests conducted on her in February and informed James of same.
“The first time that James had been informed by anyone that she had a mass in the head of her pancreas was by Dr. Lee on June 7, 2019. As a result, a diagnostic laparoscopy was performed on James, which confirmed the presence of pancreatic cancer,” per the lawsuit.
“Pathology results confirmed a 2.8 cm, poorly-differentiated pancreatic adenocarcinoma with invasion of the peripancreatic fibro adipose tissue, confirmed that her cancer had spread to 7 lymph nodes and she was diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer.”
UPDATE
Counsel for Moses Taylor Hospital filed preliminary objections on March 16, alleging that, in part, its claims of corporate liability were “impermissibly vague…and preclude defendant from properly evaluating and formulating a defense as to the conduct of unidentified agents and scope of the alleged conduct.”
Additionally, the hospital seeks a court order to compel the amending of the complaint, to conform to state laws governing the process of pleading civil counts.
“In plaintiffs’ complaint, Counts II and III assert claims of negligence against defendant Drs. Stallman and Opsasnick, respectively. Within those counts, plaintiffs further allege that Drs. Stallman and Opsasnick were ‘the agent, servant, employee, apparent agent or ostensible agent of [objecting defendant],” the objections stated.
“In the complaint, plaintiffs as well allude to claims of ‘derivative and vicarious liability of, [objecting defendant] for the negligent acts and omissions of its agents, servants and/or employees. As such, although not explicitly stated in Counts I and II, plaintiffs imply theories of vicarious liability against objecting defendant. Nevertheless, averments of vicarious liability are never set forth in a separate count. Neither are the elements of such causes of action sufficiently pled. Instead, plaintiffs impermissibly conflated theories of vicarious liability within the counts of negligence asserted against individual Drs. Stallman and Opsasnick.”
For multiple counts of negligence, corporate negligence and loss of consortium, the plaintiffs are seeking damages, jointly and severally, in excess of the jurisdictional amount requiring arbitration referral, plus interest and costs of suit.
The plaintiffs are represented by James F. Mundy of Powell Law, in Scranton.
The defendants are represented by Dominick J. Georgetti and Christian J. Owens of Perry Law Firm in Scranton, and Stuart T. O’Neal, Joseph T. Healey and Frederick J. Lokuta, of Burns White, in Conshohocken.
Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas case 2021-CV-00596
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com