Chemo Drug Mix-Up Leaves Leukemia Patient Paralyzed, Jury Awards $18.56 Million
After trial: A pre-trial high-low agreement caps what Weck actually recovers below the jury's $18,564,000 figure. The agreement's terms were not reported, so the amount collected is not public.
Won by Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, LLP.
A pharmacist three months into her probationary period at a New Jersey hospital let a spinal-toxic chemotherapy drug mix into a leukemia patient's intrathecal dose during what was supposed to be his final treatment, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. A Middlesex County jury found the pharmacist at fault and held the hospital liable for her conduct, while clearing the oncologist who gave the injections. Jurors awarded the patient $18,564,000, including $17.5 million for pain and suffering. Defense counsel told the New Jersey Law Journal that a high-low agreement entered before trial would reduce what the patient actually recovers; the figure was not reported.
What happened
On May 15, 2001, Anton Weck went to St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for what was supposed to be his final chemotherapy treatment for leukemia. He had gone through the same procedure many times before without incident: an intravenous dose of vincristine and a separate injection of methotrexate directly into his spinal canal. This time, Eun Mi Jhun, a pharmacist on three months' probation with essentially no experience preparing chemotherapy agents, let the two drugs mix instead of keeping them apart. Vincristine is toxic to the spinal cord. Methotrexate is the drug meant to go there.
Within two weeks, Weck lost all feeling in his legs. Later testing at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison found vincristine in his spinal cord, according to his attorney, William Levinson. The hospital and Jhun denied that the drugs had been mixed improperly, but the damage was already done. Weck was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Weck sued St. Peter's University Hospital, Jhun, and Vishwas Sakahalkar, the oncologist who gave the injections, in Superior Court, Middlesex County. Judge Phillip Paley presided over a trial that ran three weeks. After two days of deliberation, the jury found Jhun at fault for the mixing error and held the hospital liable for her conduct under the doctrine of respondeat superior. Jurors returned no cause against Sakahalkar.
In March 2006 the jury awarded Weck $18,564,000: $17.5 million for pain and suffering, $518,000 for future lost wages, $475,500 for future medical expenses, and $70,500 for past lost wages. William Levinson and William Crutchlow of Eichen Levinson & Crutchlow in Edison, the firm now known as Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, represented Weck. St. Peter's and Jhun were insured by Princeton Insurance Co. and defended at trial by Craig Combs Jr. of Giblin & Combs in Morristown.
Combs told the New Jersey Law Journal that the parties had entered a high-low agreement before trial that would reduce the recovery. The amount of that agreement was not reported, so what Weck actually collected is not public. No appeal of the verdict has surfaced in the years since. At the time of the verdict Weck was 25 and working as a technician at the Middlesex County Cerebral Palsy Association.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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