Jury Awards $1.4 Million Over Missed Cancer Recurrence After Testicular Surgery
After trial: As of the news coverage in February 2026, the trial court had given the defense a couple of weeks to file post-trial motions seeking to set aside or reduce the verdict. No ruling on those motions, and no notice of appeal, has been publicly reported since. Vermont has no medical malpractice damages cap, so no statutory reduction applies. It is not publicly known whether the $1,400,000 has been paid.
Won by Gravel & Shea PC.
A Tunbridge, Vermont man had his left testicle removed for Stage 1 testicular cancer in May 2020 and was placed on surveillance imaging instead of chemotherapy or radiation. Through 2021 he repeatedly reported worsening pain and urinary trouble, but his urologist declined to see him for eight months, and a metastatic tumor visible on his January and April 2021 scans went unidentified. A Vermont jury found Dartmouth Hitchcock Health, Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic and Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital liable for medical malpractice and awarded $1,400,000 in February 2026, while rejecting a separate implied-consent claim. Post-trial motions were pending at last report.
What happened
In May 2020, a Tunbridge, Vermont man had his left testicle surgically removed at a Dartmouth Health facility in Lebanon, New Hampshire, after doctors diagnosed Stage 1 testicular cancer. Rather than follow up with chemotherapy or radiation, his urologist recommended periodic surveillance imaging to watch for a recurrence.
Over the following year, the patient repeatedly reported worsening erectile pain and difficulty urinating. His urologist declined to see him from May 2021 until January 2022, relenting only after a physician friend of the patient intervened. Imaging taken in January and April 2021 in fact showed a metastatic tumor on his pelvis, but no one flagged it at the time. On retrospective review, Dartmouth Health providers acknowledged that the images read as normal in January and April 2021 do show a metastatic tumor on his pelvis. The complaint also alleged that neither the urologist nor any other provider had told the radiologists reading those images about the patient's condition or his ongoing complaints.
The man sued Dartmouth Hitchcock Health, Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic and Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in 2022 and amended the complaint in September 2024, arguing the providers failed to properly investigate his symptoms and missed a tumor that was there to be seen. The case went to trial in Vermont Superior Court's Orange Unit in Chelsea. Over two weeks, his attorney, Robert B. Hemley of Gravel & Shea in Burlington, working with co-counsel Celeste E. Laramie, put on about a dozen witnesses.
The jury deliberated roughly five hours across two days before returning its verdict on Friday, February 13, 2026: $1,400,000 for medical malpractice, covering medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and lost income. The jury rejected a second claim the patient had brought under Vermont's implied consent provisions.
Hemley said afterward that the verdict validated claims the patient had pressed for six years: that Dartmouth Hitchcock had been negligent both in failing to identify the metastatic tumor and in failing to take his symptoms seriously when he kept reporting them.
The verdict was not final as of the news coverage. The court gave the defense a couple of weeks to file post-trial motions, and no ruling on those motions has been publicly reported since. Vermont has no cap on medical malpractice damages, economic or noneconomic, so no statutory reduction applies regardless of how the post-trial motions come out.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.New Hampshire Union Leader (Jonathan Phelps, staff), 2026-02-13: verdict amount, the surgery and surveillance decision, the 2021 complaints, the January and April 2021 images and the retrospective review, and names Robert Hemley and Celeste Laramie of Gravel & Shea PC as plaintiff's counsel
- 2.Brattleboro Reformer (Mike Donoghue, Vermont News & Media), 2026-02-16: Chelsea dateline, verdict amount, two-week trial and roughly five hours of deliberation, the jury's rejection of the implied-consent count, the named defendants, the 2022 filing and September 2024 amendment, post-trial motion window, and names Robert Hemley of Gravel & Shea with co-counsel Celeste E. Laramie
- 3.Vermont Business Magazine, 2026-02-16: carries the same Vermont News & Media report, corroborating the verdict amount, the defendants, counsel for both sides, and the post-trial motion window
- 4.Bennington Banner, 2026-02-16: same Vermont News & Media report, corroborating verdict amount, venue and counsel of record
More proven verdicts from Gravel & Shea PC
In October 2012, a 14-year-old Milton High School freshman was sexually assaulted by football teammates during a hazing ritual at a team dinner, despite the Milton Town School District's prior knowledge of hazing and sexual assaults within the program. A Chittenden County jury found the District 60 percent negligent and awarded $280,000, but also assigned 40 percent of the fault to the freshman himself. The trial court later concluded it had erred in letting the jury weigh the victim's own fault in a sexual assault case, and granted a new trial unless the District accepted an additur of $186,666, bringing the total judgment to $466,666. The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed in 2021. The case later prompted Vermont to bar the comparative-negligence defense entirely in negligence claims arising from a sexual assault.
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