Sommers Schwartz attorneys Matthew Turner and Lisa Esser-Weidenfeller obtained a verdict of $885,618.72 in a wrongful death case against an oral surgeon who failed to diagnose cancer of the tongue. The medical malpractice lawsuit claimed that the defendant failed to biopsy a lesion on that turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. When the abnormality was finally biopsied, the cancer had spread to her lymph node. She underwent surgery to remove part of her tongue and dissect her neck, but post-operative complications necessitated a tracheostomy, a prolonged hospital stay, and extensive rehabilitation at an extended care facility. Radiation treatment was unsuccessful, and the cancer spread to the other side of her neck and eventually to her lungs before she died. The plaintiff alleged that had the abnormality been timely detected and treated, removal of the lesion would have been the extent or her treatment and the cancer would have been cured.