March 25, 2004 Court Overturns Verdict Vs. School Clinic

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The Massachusetts state appeals court Thursday overturned a $4 million jury verdict awarded to a couple who said their daughter died because Northeastern University's campus health clinic failed to diagnose her leukemia. The court found that Michel Goldberg's parents failed to present expert testimony to support their claim that the university operated its Lane Health Center improperly.

The 19-year-old died in 1993 of complications from acute myelogenous leukemia, 15 days after her last visit to the clinic, where a registered nurse had told her she had a flu.

In 2000, a Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded the $4 million to Laurence and Marlene Goldberg, of Fort Lee, N.J. The appeals court said the negligence claim was "merely speculative" without expert testimony. "Such expert evidence was lacking," it said.