14 DAY TRIAL // In November 2008, a federal judge awarded Jean Phillips, the ex-wife of an Air Force captain stationed at the Scott Air Force Base, more than $8.5 in damages, following her misdiagnosed condition. When she came to the base last year and sought the advice of physician Dr. Dan MacAlpine about a rash she had on her arm, he sent her away and told her to take over-the-counter pain medication. The condition later turned out to be necrotizing fasciitis, an affection most commonly known as the flesh-eating bacteria.
After a short while, Phillips returned to the Air Force hospital, where the doctors there finally managed to correctly diagnose her condition, but only when it was already too late. “This is a sad story.” Phillips now “faces the future with no reason to be optimistic that things will improve,” Magistrate Judge Philip Frazier wrote in his ruling last year. He then went on to provide Phillips with eight and a half million dollars in damages and medical expenses, a decision that was appealed by MacAlpine.
The US government intervened and asked the judge to reduce the amount of the money Phillips was to receive by approximately $1.13 million. The Court didn't see eye to eye with the federal authorities, and the sum was only reduced by $62,748, for medical expenses. Thus, the majority of the woman's reward stands, much to the satisfaction of everyone familiar with the case.
The chain of events that eventually led to court took place in 2002, when MacApline ignored Phillips' complaints of pain in her right arm. Furthermore, he assumed that the woman was a drug addict searching for prescription pills on account of the very same rash. Thus, he refused to hear her pleas, and sent her home. The woman tried to treat herself with over-the-counter medicine, as the doctor ordered, but the pain only got worse. By the time the infection was discovered, it was already too late.