STAMFORD — A Superior Court jury Thursday awarded $49 million to a Darien woman expected to die of cervical cancer who sued her gynecologist alleging she should have been diagnosed earlier.
Jennifer Anderson was diagnosed invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix in 2019 after complaining of irregular menstrual cycles and bleeding, according to her lawsuit against Westmed Medical Group and Dr. Dziwinka Carroll.
By the time of the diagnosis, the lawsuit said Anderson had been a patient of Carroll’s for six years, and at multiple annual visits had repeatedly tested positive for a type of human papillomavirus, or HPV, known to put patients at “high risk” for cervical cancer, during Pap tests.
“Despite these results, Dr. Carroll never performed a colposcopy, a standard follow-up procedure required under the applicable standard of care,” the lawsuit said.
When it was found, the cancer had spread to Anderson’s chest, abdomen and pelvis, according to her attorney, Peter Dreyer, of Silver Golub & Teitell, who said she now suffers from late-stage metastatic cervical cancer that is expected to kill her.
After a five-week trial before Judge Yamini Menon at state Superior Court, a jury deliberated for about three hours before finding the defendants negligent Thursday, then awarding Anderson $39 million and her husband $10 million in damages.
In a prepared statement, a spokesperson for Westmed, a subsidiary of Summit Health and VillageMD, said that the company intends to appeal.
“While we disagree with the verdict, we empathize with the Andersons,” the statement from Westmed said. “However, we cannot comment on current litigation given the fact that we intend to file post-trial motions and an appeal.”
In addition to Dreyer, Silver Golub & Teitell partner Sarah Russell represented the plaintiffs at trial.
“Jennifer Anderson did everything right,” Dreyer said. “She went to her doctor every year, she had her tests done, and she trusted that her results would be acted upon. That trust was betrayed, repeatedly, over six years. This verdict holds Westmed accountable for what happened to her.”
“What makes this case so troubling is that cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers we have,” Russell said. “Jennifer Anderson’s tragedy did not have to happen. We hope this verdict sends a message to medical practices that protocols for high-risk patients must be followed.”
Dreyer said the jury’s verdict “was somewhat inevitable because the facts were so overwhelmingly favorable to our side.”
The Andersons have three children, the youngest of whom is in college, Dreyer said.
“Our clients have been through a lot to get to this point but they’re very pleased with the jury validating what they’ve been saying and vindicating them,” he said. “It’s been a long road. It’s been a lot of years to get to here.”
He said Jennifer Anderson hopes that the attention generated by the case could make women more aware of HPV, for which there are “well-established guidelines” to manage.
“It went from completely curable as a precancerous lesion to a terminal disease,” Dreyer said. “It’s a tragedy. There’s no other way to say it.”