Des Moines, IA (AP) A jury has returned a $27 million verdict against a central Iowa medical clinic after a man with bacterial meningitis was misdiagnosed with the flu, suffered strokes and said he has been permanently injured. The jury in Polk County District Court in Des Moines returned the verdict Monday in the lawsuit filed in 2017 against UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine in Des Moines. Joseph Dudley and his wife Sarah Dudley filed the lawsuit after Joseph became ill with dizziness, headache, a cough and high fever in February 2017 and went to the clinic. A physician's assistant diagnosed him with the flu but it was later determined he had meningitis. UnityPoint says it met well-established standards of care and may appeal.
Joseph Dudley and his wife Sarah Dudley claim Joseph became ill in 2017 and went to a clinic in Des Moines, where a physician's assistant made an incorrect diagnosis. Two days later, Joseph was in a hospital ER.