A Lancaster County Court jury on Wednesday awarded a Lancaster woman $6.4 million after concluding that she lost her ability to walk unassisted and pain-free because her local neurologist initially failed to spot her congenital brain defect.
Elizabeth Brubaker, 34, who had been working as a hairdresser and attending HACC to become a radiologic technologist, filed the suit in 2017 against Dr. Venkatachalam Mangeshkumar of Neurology & Stroke Associates, Lititz, which he founded.Â
The verdict is one of the largest medical malpractice awards ever here. The juryâs award consists of $6.0 million for pain and suffering and future medical expenses plus $413,000 for past medical expenses, said Brubakerâs attorney, April Strang-Kutay.Â
The siblings and their mother gathered in a circle around the family table.
One by one, they pulled items from the plastic bag they’d picked up from the hospital lobby. Their mother went first, selecting her husband’s reading glasses, devotional booklets and Bible, a reminder of their nightly routine of reading the word of God together.
The eldest daughter selected a shirt her father had worn in the hospital, as well as his cellphone, and two other sisters picked their father’s Virgen de Guadalupe prayer card and a rosary purchased on a trip to Israel. Their brother chose a ring, a nephew a pair of sweatpants and someone else the snow globe recently purchased at the hospital gift shop.
MedStar Georgetown’s School Health Center at Anacostia High
Michelle Francis walked past a student one morning at Anacostia High School where she works at a clinic run by MedStar Georgetown University Medical Center then looked back to see him stuff a sleeping bag and duffel into the bushes. Suspecting that the student was homeless, she worked with clinic and school staff to connect him and his family to housing.
“As a nurse, we are trained to be observant,” says Francis, 55, who has been an LPN for 11 years. “I might take a blood pressure and notice cutting on the arm. We had another student, her clothes were dirty. She said her parents didn’t have money for detergent.”
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