$3.6 million award in death of Schaumburg cancer patient

A jury has awarded a $3.6 million to the estate of a Schaumburg woman who died of cancer two years ago.

Lisa Ann Stenberg sued Dr. Kathleen Pearson in 2003, asserting Pearson failed to properly diagnose Stenberg's breast cancer. She died in August 2007 at age 55 of complications from the cancer.

Stenberg's attorney, Robert Strelecky, said she went to Pearson's Elk Grove Village office in July 1999 after feeling a lump in her breast. The doctor sent her for a mammogram, which came up negative. Pearson also preformed a biopsy, but the lawsuit contended an ultrasound should have also been conducted.

Stenberg suffered from lobular cancer, which isn't always detectable through a mammogram, Strelecky said. It wasn't until December 2001, when Stenberg went to another doctor, that she was diagnosed, he added.

The radiologist who read Stenberg's 1999 mammogram was also named in the lawsuit, but jurors found him not liable.

The trial lasted a week and the jury deliberated for about seven hours.

Pearson now practices family medicine in New Hampshire. Her Chicago-based attorney, David C. Van Dyke, declined to comment.

Stenberg's 23-year-old daughter Alissa is mentally disabled and lives in a publicly funded group home, Strelecky said, and the money from the verdict will help her receive proper care. Alissa Stenberg's aunt, Laura Bardowski, was named her guardian.

The verdict sum was less than half of what attorneys sought, but Strelecky said he was pleased with the result.

"This from our perspective was clearly a case of malpractice, and there were many attempts to settle," he said.

Lisa Ann Stenberg was a Chicago native and active with the Special Olympics, according to her 2007 death notice.