{"id":44220,"date":"2025-11-25T14:09:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44220\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:09:21","slug":"penn-medicine-main-line-health-hit-with-2025s-biggest-philly-med-mal-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44220\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn Medicine, Main Line Health hit with 2025’s biggest Philly med mal verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Philadelphia jury reached $35 million verdict Friday against Main Line<\/a> Health and the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> Health System for a cancer misdiagnosis that led a then-45-year old Philadelphia resident to undergo a total hysterectomy in 2021. <\/p>\n

Main Line discovered later that the biopsy slides used to make the diagnosis in February 2021 were contaminated. The cancer diagnosis was due an error that involved a second person\u2019s DNA, not that of the plaintiff, Iris Spencer, who did not have cancer.<\/p>\n

Main Line settled with Spencer in 2022 for an undisclosed amount, so it won\u2019t have to pay its share of the verdict. <\/p>\n

The jury found Penn and its physician, Janos Tanyi, a gynecological oncologist, liable for $12.25 million, or 35%, of the total awarded in damages for her unnecessary hysterectomy. The lawsuit said Spencer suffers from \u201csurgically-induced menopause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit against Penn and Tanyi said the physician did not do enough to resolve a conflict between biopsy results at Main Line and those at Penn, where Spencer sought a second opinion. <\/p>\n

A Penn biopsy did not find cancer. Other tests were also negative, but Spencer did not know about those results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe verdict affirms the central importance of the patient and the doctor\u2019s obligation to inform the patient of all of the test results, of all of her options, and that she shouldn\u2019t be dismissed because she\u2019s a patient and not a doctor,\u201d Spencer\u2019s lawyer, Glenn A. Ellis, said Monday. <\/p>\n

The $35 million verdict is Philadelphia\u2019s largest this year for medical malpractice, according to data from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.<\/p>\n

Medical malpractice costs have been rising throughout healthcare<\/a>. A factor in Pennsylvania is a 2023 rule change that allowed more flexibility in where cases can be filed.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a Philadelphia jury issued a state record $183 million verdict<\/a> against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in a birth injury case.<\/p>\n

A laboratory mistake <\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s troubles started in February 2021 at Main Line\u2019s Lankenau Medical Center where her biopsy found that she had cancer in the lining of her uterus despite the lack of symptoms.<\/p>\n

For a second opinion, Spencer saw Tanyi at Penn a few days later. A repeat biopsy came back negative, according to Spencer\u2019s complaint that was filed in early 2023. Tanyi also performed other tests, all of which came back negative, but he did not share that information with Spencer, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

After Tanyi performed the complete hysterectomy on March 8, 2021, Penn\u2019s pathology laboratory found no cancer in the tissues that had been removed from Spencer\u2019s body. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Spencer, who has since moved to Georgia, went back to Lankenau seeking an explanation. Seven months later, Main Line informed her that she never had cancer. <\/p>\n

Main Line and Spencer subsequently \u201creached an amicable full and final settlement to resolve and discharge all potential claims for care involving the health system,\u201d Main Line said in a statement. Main Line did not participate in the trial.<\/p>\n

Penn said in a statement: \u201cWe are disappointed by the jury\u2019s verdict in this case that was unmoored to the evidence presented at trial on negligence and damages. Our physician reasonably relied on the pathology performed at a hospital outside our system that revealed a very aggressive cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn said it plans to appeal the verdict, which could increase by more than $2 million if the court approves a motion for delay damages that Ellis filed Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Philadelphia jury reached $35 million verdict Friday against Main Line Health and the University of Pennsylvania Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,26306],"class_list":{"0":"post-44220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news","11":"tag-philadelphia-medical-malpractice-penn-main-line-verdict-cancer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}