Sam Meklir Secures $2.8 Million Verdict in Medical Malpractice Case Involving Undiagnosed and Untreated Heart Attack
When Dorothy Kubacki went to the St. John Macomb Oakland Hospital with chest pain, she and her family expected prompt diagnosis and treatment. She died two days later without receiving either.
Mrs. Kubacki presented to the hospital on a Saturday afternoon around 2:00pm, complaining of chest pain. She was admitted by 5:00pm, and was assigned an internal medicine physician who then referred her to a cardiologist. Over the course of the next 2½ days, no testing was ever performed despite her ongoing bouts of chest pain. The decision to perform heart catheterization procedure was made too late, resulting in the patient’s death at 2:30am on Monday.
Sommers Schwartz attorney Sam Meklir persuaded an Oakland County jury that the hospital waited 2½ days to even attempt to definitively diagnose the Mrs. Kubacki’s chest pain, and convinced the panel that even if doctors had rendered a diagnosis, the hospital simply wasn’t equipped to perform the necessary procedures to stop her fatal heart attack.
Verdicts in favor of medical malpractice plaintiffs are extremely rare in Oakland County, Michigan, but after three days of deliberations, this afternoon the jury returned a total verdict of approximately $2.8 million against the hospital.
More about this tragic case can be found at the Oakland Press and Macomb Daily websites.