February 23, 2002 - $800,000 Awarded in Suit

---

A woman who was paralyzed from the waist down by an untreated blood clot has been awarded $800,000 by a jury in a medical malpractice suit against Clarion Hospital. Byers claimed the hospital and doctors Ronald Buckley and John Brooks failed to respond to a blood clot pressing on her spinal cord which was causing her to lose sensation. Byers was hospitalized in July 1998 for a suspected heart attack, as well as, for losing sensation in her legs. According to court documents, doctors later determined that she hadn't had a heart attack, and if the clot been removed in time, Byers wouldn't have suffered permanent spinal cord injury.

The Clarion County jury found only the hospital liable and not the two doctors also sued by Mae Byers.