Updated

Updated · NJ.com · Jul 20

Brian Coven Estate Wins $10.5 Million Settlement Over 3-Year Missed Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Updated

Updated · NJ.com · Jul 20

Brian Coven Estate Wins $10.5 Million Settlement Over 3-Year Missed Lung Cancer Diagnosis

1 articles · Updated · NJ.com · Jul 20

$10.5 million will go to Brian Coven’s estate under an April 14 settlement with Summit Medical Group over claims four physicians missed his lung cancer until it reached stage four.
The lawsuit says Coven first showed an abnormal chest X-ray in 2019, but doctors failed to flag the infiltrate, order follow-up testing or act on reports that noted it.
By 2022, a CT scan confirmed the cancer had spread to his rib, sacrum, lymph nodes and brain; Coven died in 2024 at age 63.
Roy Herbst, Coven’s oncologist, testified he would have had more than a 90% chance of survival if the cancer had been diagnosed in 2019 or 2020.
The case, filed in Essex County Superior Court in December 2022, centered on allegations that the four Summit doctors blamed one another for the missed diagnosis.

Sources

After a $10.5M settlement, what professional consequences will the four physicians face for the fatal three-year diagnostic delay?

What systemic flaws let four doctors miss a fatal cancer, and what changes will prevent it from happening again?

Could AI have prevented this tragedy by spotting the cancer on the first X-ray that the radiologist missed?

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