Paralyzed logger awarded $2.2M in malpractice lawsuit

MEADVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Three doctors affiliated with a northwestern Pennsylvania hospital owe a former Pennsylvania logger $2.2 million for not properly treating his spinal injury, which has left him a paraplegic, a jury has ruled.

The Crawford County jury awarded the money to Robert Anthony, 50, and his wife and caretaker, Tina, the Titusville Herald reported Saturday. The jury returned the verdict Friday after a nearly two-week trial.

The Anthonys sued claiming doctors at Titusville Area Hospital didn’t properly examine him after a 500-pound treetop slammed into Anthony’s back in the summer of 2012. Anthony claimed he was in too much pain to lie down properly for a complete set of spinal X-rays and the incomplete set didn’t detect the spinal fracture that eventually paralyzed him.

The Anthonys argued he should have been given a CT scan instead, and a jury agreed after hearing testimony from a surgeon who said Anthony would be walking today had the fracture been diagnosed properly, among other witnesses.

Instead, Anthony was hospitalized for three days before he spent two painful days at home, and eventually was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital. By then, he was paralyzed from the chest down, the lawsuit said.

The jury awarded Anthony $300,000 for past pain and suffering, $1.7 million for future pain and suffering, and $200,000 to his wife for her suffering.