Trumbull jury clears doctors in lawsuit

WARREN -- A Trumbull County jury found that two local doctors were not negligent in their treatment of a 51-year-old city woman.
Jurors deliberated less than an hour Thursday before returning the verdict in the wrongful death lawsuit of Donna Morris. The jury began hearing the case Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Ralph Morris, husband of the late Mrs. Morris and executor of her estate, filed the lawsuit last year saying that Dr. Nitin Patel and Dr. Fernando Chavez, both of Warren, were negligent because they discovered that Mrs. Morris had cancer in 1992 but did not convince the woman that she needed further medical treatment.
Mrs. Morris died in 1996, court records state.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Mrs. Morris, who smoked, sought treatment from Dr. Patel in 1992 because she had chest pains. Dr. Patel found that she had a mass in her left lung and referred her to Dr. Chavez for a biopsy, court officials stated.
Witnesses during the trial stated that the doctors suggested she have additional treatment but she refused.