The thousands of malpractice cases reported to the state Board of Medicine since 1993 allege a host of medical errors and negligence by doctors. Many blame doctors for a death. Others fault physicians for brain damage suffered by an infant at birth.
Some cases allege the wrong organ was removed, or the wrong limb amputated.
Two-thirds of the malpractice cases reported to the board ended with settlements or jury verdicts in the plaintiff's favor. The woman had gone to a Clarksburg hospital's emergency room in 1993 complaining of severe headaches. Kennedy, a radiologist, misread a scan of her brain as normal, the claim alleged. The woman returned to the ER the following week, as the headaches had grown worse. Only then did doctors discover that she had a blood clot in her brain.