BOSTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A jury in Suffolk County, Mass., has awarded $13.5 million to the family of a woman who died after receiving chemotherapy, the family's lawyer says.
Attorney Robert Higgins said a Suffolk Superior Court jury ordered Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to pay the family $13.5 million in the death of mother-of-two Amy Altman, The Boston Globe said Thursday.
Altman died in July 2003 after receiving a round of experimental chemotherapy at the health center.
Jurors in the litigation case found doctors at the cancer site should have thoroughly investigated a case of chronic diarrhea Altman suffered after undergoing the experimental procedure, Higgins said.
Higgins said Altman was the first adult to have died after taking part in the procedure, which involves receiving chemotherapy every two weeks as opposed to every three weeks.
The attorney said while Altman was desperate for treatment for a tumor known as Ewing's sarcoma, Dana-Farber doctors never adequately explained all the risks involved with the treatment.
"She knew there were side effects, but what she did not know is that they could be really bad and dangerous when you're compromised from chemotherapy," Higgins told the Globe.
