Jury awards $40 million to North Providence man in malpractice suit against R.I. Hospital

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A jury awarded a North Providence man $40 million after he lost his right leg due to severe blood clotting.

After an eight-day medical malpractice trial before Superior Court Judge Kristin Rodgers, an eight-member jury awarded $40 million, amounting to $62 million with interest, to Peter Sfameni for errors made while he was being treated at Rhode Island Hospital. It is believed to be the largest medical malpractice award in the state’s history.

According to his complaint, Sfameni had a genetic blood-clotting disorder that required him to often take blood thinners. He went to the Rhode Island Hospital emergency room in December 2010 at age 55 complaining of lower back pain, fatigue and weight loss. Doctors told him to stay off blood thinners so they could perform a colonoscopy to explore whether he had lymphoma.

He went home and returned to the hospital two days later. At that time he’d been off thinners for 10 days, the complaint says. He was found to be hyper-coagulated and was admitted by Drs. John Ryan and Eric Winer. A lymph-node biopsy was planned, but instead a bone-marrow biopsy was done. Another doctor recommended that he resume taking blood thinners.

Read more: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170922/jury-awards-40-million-to-north-providence-man-in-malpractice-suit-against-ri-hospital