A Vermont jury awarded $1.4 million to a Tunbridge man after finding Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center committed medical malpractice in his testicular cancer treatment.
The case centered on care the patient received from Dartmouth Health starting in May 2020 for urologic and oncologic concerns. Dr. John Seigne, who practices at the Lebanon facility, surgically removed the man’s left testicle on May 29, 2020, and recommended surveillance rather than chemotherapy or radiation.
Throughout 2021, the patient complained to Seigne and other Dartmouth Health providers about increasing erectile dysfunction, pain and difficulty with urination, according to the lawsuit. Despite these repeated complaints, no provider properly investigated whether the symptoms indicated cancer had returned or spread.
The lawsuit alleges Seigne denied seeing the patient between May 4, 2021, and Jan. 5, 2022.
Crucially, providers at Dartmouth Health failed to identify a metastatic tumor in the man’s pelvis that appeared in radiologic images. Neither Seigne nor other providers informed radiologists who examined images in January and April 2021 about the patient’s condition or ongoing complaints, the lawsuit states.
“On retrospective review, providers employed by Dartmouth Health and/or other Defendants, acknowledged that the images taken and interpreted as normal in January and April 2021 reveal the presence of a metastatic tumor in (the patient’s) pelvis,” the complaint reads.
The patient received additional treatment in January 2022, but the delayed diagnosis resulted in severe injury, medical expenses, pain, suffering, lost income and other damages, according to the lawsuit.
Robert Hemley of Gravel & Shea PC in Burlington, Vermont, who represented the plaintiff, said the verdict validates “claims the plaintiff has asserted for the last six years that Dartmouth was negligent in failing to identify a metastatic tumor and take his health complaints seriously.”
“It demonstrates the continuing strength of the jury system in Vermont,” Hemley said in a news release. “I am proud of the part we played in bringing Dartmouth to justice, and hope the medical system improves as a result.”
Dartmouth Health and its attorneys from Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC did not respond to requests for comment.
The case highlights ongoing scrutiny of patient care at the Upper Valley’s largest medical center, which serves as the primary teaching hospital for Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
