A Lackawanna County jury has awarded a $1.9 million verdict to the estate of a 60-year-old man who died after his cancer of the bladder went undiagnosed for 16 months.

After an eight-day trial, the jury on May 13 returned its verdict against Milan J. Smolko, a former Scranton urologist, and Lillian Longendorfer, a pathologist employed by Wayne Memorial Hospital of Honesdale, PA. The jury award of $1,885,000 was divided equally between the pathologist and the urologist.

During the trial, the hospital, also a defendant, settled its part of the case for an undisclosed sum. The plaintiff, Terrence E. Golden of Dunmore, PA., a Vietnam Navy veteran who worked as a financial planner and insurance salesman, died on Jan. 21, 2008.

"I became very close to Terry, he became one of my favorite clients," said James E. Foerstner of The Beasley Firm, who represented Golden’s wife Christine, the administrator of her late husband’s estate. Foerstner said that his client suffered greatly because of the undiagnosed cancer.

"It was terrible," Foerstner said. "When he was diagnosed from a very treatable cancer, he ended up losing his bladder, his prostate, his kidney, his uretha." But in spite of his pain, Foerstner said, "He was always upbeat and positive."

Foerstner saw Golden two days before he died.

"He said, ‘Jim, I want to give you a kiss. Just take care of my family,’" Foerstner said. Besides his wife, Golden also helped support his daughter, Foerstner said, and was a "father figure" to his young grandson.

According to the 2008 complaint that initiated the lawsuit, Golden made multiple visits to Dr. Smolko’s office between Sept. 18, 2002 and January 2004. "During each visit," the complaint said, "Mr. Golden had signs and symptoms of urinary tract disease, including bladder cancer."

"On July 16, 2003, Dr. Smolko performed a cystoscopy, dilation and visual urethrotomy, and failed to diagnose signs of bladder cancer." The doctor also on July 16, 2003, obtained a bladder biopsy specimen and submitted to the pathology department at Wayne Memorial Hospital. At the hospital, Dr. Longendorfer "misdiagnosed the tissue sample as chronic cystitis when in fact it was positive for a bladder cancer," according to the complaint.

"From Aug. 26, 2003 through Dec. 4, 2003, Mr. Golden had multiple contacts with Dr. Smolko’s office. During which time he provided urine samples which demonstrated symptoms of bladder cancer, specifically occult [microscopic] blood in his urine. Dr. Smolko failed to follow up on the sign of occult blood in the urine."

Golden subsequently sought care from another urologist, who performed a cystoscopy on June 23,2004 and confirmed a diagnosis of bladder cancer. On Aug. 9, 2004, Mr. Golden "underwent surgery to remove his prostate, bladder, and portions of his uretha, and other organs, for treatment of the misdiagnosed bladder cancer," the complaint stated.

During the surgery, doctors fashioned a replacement bladder out of Mr. Golden’s small intestine. "As a result of his uretha being removed, [Golden] was required to void through his naval" every four to five hours," the complaint said.

Golden subsequently underwent several more operations before doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center determined in January 2008 that "his bladder cancer had advanced and could no longer be controlled by further medical treatment." Golden was subsequently dispatched from Sloan Kettering to "die at home."

During Dr. Smolko’s deposition of Nov. 13, 2006, the doctor testified that while he was treating Terrence Golden, the doctor was addicted to oxycontin, a narcotic painkiller. "I was placed on suboxone [another narcotic] by another physician so I could stop oxycontin," Dr. Smolko testified during his deposition.

In the lawsuit, Foerstner alleged that Dr. Smolko was "a narcotics addict and impaired during the period of time in which he treated Mr. Golden. This affected his judgment and actions in his care and treatment of patients."

Dr. Smolko surrendered his license to practice medicine as a result of his addictions to narcotics and on Sept. 18, 2006, plead guilty to a felony. According a motion filed by the doctor’s lawyers, Smolko’s guilty plea resulted in the doctor entering into the Lackawanna County Treatment Court Program.

The felony charges against Smolko were subsequently dropped after he completed the Lackawanna County Drug Court Program, according to motions filed by the doctor’s lawyers Since the charges were dropped, the doctor’s lawyer was successful in bringing a motion in limine to preclude evidence of the doctor’s guilty plea and possession of a controlled substance from being introduced to the jury.

Foerstner’s co-counsel at trial was Sal Cognetti Jr. of Scranton.