SETTLEMENT
UTMC to pay out $200,000 in suit
Woman claims treatment error
1/27/2014The University of Toledo Medical Center has agreed to pay a former cancer patient more than $200,000 to settle a dispute over radiation therapy she received.
The Ohio Court of Claims approved the settlement agreement on Friday between Meighan Maher of Tecumseh, Mich., and several doctors who were UTMC employees.
Ms. Maher sued Drs. John Feldmeier, Kelly Manahan, and Adam Walter on Dec. 19, 2012, for applying radiotherapy to the wrong sites on her body while treating her for cervical and endometrial cancer.
Ms. Maher’s complaint said she received the radiotherapy on four separate visits in December. She later discovered, during a follow-up visit, that a catheter used to deliver the treatment was not properly inserted and, as a result, the treatment had been administered to wrong sites instead of to her cervix and uterine cavity. The suit said she suffered “severe burns and substantial disfigurement.”
Jon Strunk, a University of Toledo spokesman, said in a prepared statement: “It is common for two parties with a factual dispute, such as in this instance, to reach an agreement releasing each from any claim of fault or further legal liability. Patients from across the globe travel to receive the top-tier medical care The University of Toledo Medical Center provides and that will undoubtedly continue.”
In addition to paying Ms. Maher, UTMC — the former Medical College of Ohio — agreed to pay more than $14,000 to University of Toledo Physicians LLC for payment of hyperbaric oxygen medical treatments given to Ms. Maher to treat her injuries.
The Court of Claims in Columbus has original jurisdiction to hear and determine all civil actions filed against the state of Ohio and its agencies.
UTMC is embroiled in another ongoing lawsuit concerning a South Toledo woman’s botched kidney transplant in 2012.
Sarah A. Fudacz, who was 24 at the time of the Aug. 10, 2012 surgery, was the intended recipient of a kidney from her younger brother, Paul Fudacz, that was mistakenly thrown away by a nurse after it was removed from her brother.
Ms. Fudacz sued UTMC on July 29, 2013, also in the Court of Claims. A medical-center answer acknowledged the kidney was discarded but denies some of the Fudacz family’s claims and asks the court to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety, at the plaintiffs’ cost.
Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor Marlene Harris-Taylor at: mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.