Palos Community Hospital, doctors accused of failing to diagnose patient's cancer

The administrator of a woman's estate is suing over claims the decedent's doctors failed to diagnose cancer after a test results suggested the disease.

Gail Casey, as independent administrator of the estate of Ruth E. Ummel, filed a lawsuit April 4 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Palos Community Hospital and Drs. Richard Geiger Jr., Thomas Wigboldy and Stephen Chester, citing medical malpractice.

According to the complaint, Ummel was treated on Nov. 27, 2011 by Drs. Wigboldy and Chester at Palos Community Hospital, where a radiology test found a masslike legion on the right kidney and that pathology stated renal cell carcinoma could not be discounted.

Casey claims the doctors failed to communicate the CT scan findings to other physicians, including Geiger, Ummel's primary care physician, who she alleges also failed to take the radiology results into account or order oncologic intervention.

The lawsuit states Ummel's cancer was not diagnosed until April 10, 2012, and that she died April 21, 2012.

Casey is seeking more than $100,000 in damages and is being represented in the case by attorneys Thomas J. Nathan and Mark P. Munninghoff of Munday & Nathan.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2014L003845.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.