Wrong Diagnosis of Heart Condition Results in $1 Million Settlement

As jury selection was about to begin, the estate of Barbara Smith, represented by attorneys Barry Chafetz, Margaret Power and Michelle Kohut, agreed to a settlement of their lawsuit against Roseland Community Hospital for $1 million. Barbara Smith, a 52 year-old computer programmer, went to the emergency room at Roseland with complaints of chest pain and was diagnosed as having a heart attack. The initial chest x-ray, taken shortly after her arrival, revealed an enlarged mediastinum which should have raised suspicion that an aortic dissection was occurring. She was not, however, treated for the dissection. The x-ray was either misread or not read at all and a short time later Smith died of an aortic dissection.