Family receives $750K in wrongful death suit

A decision on an appeal has not been made.

YOUNGSTOWN — The family of a woman who died in 2002, several hours after she left the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Center, has been awarded damages of $750,000 for wrongful death.

On Friday, a jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court awarded $754,644 to Steven W. Ross, administrator of the estate of Darlene M. Ross. The jury awarded $4,644 for the woman’s funeral expenses.

The case was heard by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.

The defendant in the case was Mahoning Valley Emergency Room Specialists, a company with a Bentleyville, Ohio, address that provides the emergency room doctors at the hospital. The doctor was Dr. David Jackson, a veteran of about 20 years at the hospital’s emergency room.

Atty. Michael J. Hudak of Akron, the attorney for Dr. Jackson and Valley Emergency Room Specialists, said Ross, 49, complained of back pain when she went to the hospital that day and was released after being diagnosed with a muscle problem.

However, several hours later, she went to Northside Medical Center, this time complaining of a different type of pain in her abdomen, Hudak said.

Shortly after arriving at Northside, she died of an aortic aneurysm, which involves bleeding occurring between the layers of the aorta, the body’s largest artery, which carries blood from the heart, Hudak said.

The misdiagnosis was not medical malpractice, Hudak said, because the woman did not complain of, or show symptoms of, an aortic aneurysm when she went to St. Elizabeth’s, Hudak said.

He said it is premature to say whether an appeal will be filed.

Attorneys for the Ross family were Brian Kopp and Chris Maruca of Canfield.