Jury Awards $20 million for Misread Pap Smear Test
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A Palm Beach County, Florida, jury has awarded $20 million to a family of a woman who died of cancer that was not detected by a pap smear. The family claimed that LabCorp company misread pap smear tests, failing to detect a woman’s cancer not once, but twice over 2 years.
Jurors found LabCorp 75% responsible for her death with the woman being 25% responsible for not seeking other analyses sooner. The company’s lawyers did not deny that there were abnormalities on the pap smear slides but said that there were other factors involved.
Soon after her 2nd pap smear, doctors found that she had a massive growth that turned out to be cervical cancer. She died at age 37, leaving her husband and 2 young daughters.