A 22-year-old college student died several weeks after a doctor swapped his anticoagulant prescription for a baby aspirin regimen, a decision that led a jury this month to deliver what is believed to be the largest medical malpractice verdict in Howard County history.
The trial in Howard County Circuit Court ended Dec. 6 in favor of the parents of Zion Lewis, who filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice suit in May 2023 against Dr. Yousuf Abdul Gaffar and Maryland Oncology Hematology, one of the largest independent oncology and hematology groups in the state.
The lawsuit says Lewis had just returned to Howard County from college ahead of the winter holidays when his mom found him dead Dec. 17, 2021. An autopsy determined his cause of death to be a “lower left extremity occlusive thrombus” and “bilateral pulmonary arterial thromboemboli,” which are terms referring to blood clots, the suit states.
The jury awarded the plaintiffs $7.25 million, with $3.77 million going to Lewis’s mother Sandra Christie, of Columbia, and $3 million going to his father Toby Lewis, of York, Pennsylvania. Another $500,000 was awarded to the estate of Zion Lewis, which is being managed by Toby Lewis.
Neither Gaffar nor Maryland Oncology Hematology responded to messages requesting comment this week. They were represented by attorneys Charles “Chad” I. Joseph and Luciana Brienza, of Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones.
“Dr. Gaffar is an excellent hematologist who tried to help Zion,” Joseph said in an email Tuesday. “The evidence and testimony illustrated the reasonableness of his care. Our jury system is one of the best ways to resolve disputes. Unfortunately, I believe this case was one of the rare situations where the jury’s verdict, which includes its award of damages, did not match up with the evidence and testimony.”
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