UPMC to Appeal $12.5M in Malpractice Verdicts

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center expects to file an appeal after two Allegheny County juries have awarded $12.5 million in damages to the family of a 24-year-old accountant who died in 2003 after an abscess was misdiagnosed as a brain tumor.

The family of Michael Rettger of Murrysville won’t $2.5 million in a wrongful death verdict in 2008, but the remainder of the case was delayed by an earlier appeal by UPMC which argued against a second trial to compensate the family for income Rettger would have earned during his lifetime.

That second trial began Oct. 31 and ended last week with the jury determining Rettger’s lost income to be $10 million. He was an accountant for Ernst & Young when he died.

UPMC officials say Monday’s appeal will claim a judge’s rulings denied them a proper defense.