On May 7, 2018 a Queens County jury awarded $3,920,000 to the family of a 63 year old woman who died in 2012 as a result of malpractice in failing to promptly treat a post operative infection caused by a leaking colon. The patient had been diagnosed with uterine carcinoma and underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy to remove the cancer. Part of the operation necessitated cutting out a small section of colon. The colon was reattached with an anastomosis which began to leak after surgery. An untreated leaking colon will lead to infection, then sepsis, then excruciating pain followed by coma and death. That's what happened here - she never made it home from the hospital.The patient left behind an adult son and her husband. Though a surgical biopsy staged the patient's cancer as a Stage 4B clear cell uterine carcinoma--the jury found that it was the delay in diagnosing and treating the infection that led to her death.

The jury held Long Island Jewish Medical Center responsible and imposed the damage awards as follows: $3,000,000 for conscious pain and suffering (two months); $770,000 to her adult son for loss of parental guidance and loss of household services; $150,000 for loss of household services to her husband.