VALPARAISO, Ind. – A jury in Northwest Indiana awarded a Valparaiso couple over $25 million after a local hospital failed to send blood test results.
Tim Yaros went to St. Mary Medical Center in Valparaiso in 2017 after he started having bladder issues. His attorney Ken Allen said a doctor ordered blood work, but those results never made it to the specialist. It turned out the now 70-year-old Yaros had cancer, but that wasn’t discovered until 13 months later.
“Tim didn’t realize until a year later that when he showed up at the ER, he had stage four cancer that he was even that ill. In fact, now he’s relegated to a life of kidney dialysis, his organs failed, and it was all as a result of St. Mary Medical Center,” Allen said.
After a four-day trial, a Lake County Jury awarded Yaros and his wife $25.8 million.
“The truth was that Tim Yaros was mistreated in the sense that he took a test that revealed he had cancer, but they didn’t give him the results or his specialist the results until it was too late,” Allen said.
Allen hopes this settlement can help prevent something like this from happening to someone else.
WGN News reached out to St. Mary Medical Center and their attorneys for comment, but have not heard back. The jury also found Yaros’ wife suffered grave harm and was awarded $4 million.