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Published: Friday, April 29, 2011
By Sarah Cassi
The Express-Times

Northampton woman awarded $400,000 in breast cancer
lawsuit against Bethlehem doctor

A Northampton County jury awarded a Northampton woman $400,000 today in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Bethlehem doctor.

The jury found Dr. Mark Schadt was negligent in his care of Carol Renna, who was eventually diagnosed with breast cancer.

Renna, her attorney Edward Shaughnessy, and Schadt’s attorney, Peter Curry, could not immediately be reached for comment about the verdict.

According to court documents:

Renna in April 2004 found two masses in her breasts and was referred to Schadt.

In May 2004, Schadt performed a fine-needle aspiration biopsy to detect if the cysts were cancerous, and the results were negative.

Renna returned in March 2005, and a second fine-needle aspiration was performed, but this time the results were positive for cancer.

In April 22, 2005, Renna had an excisional biopsy, where the cysts and surrounding area were removed. Three days later, Renna learned she had invasive carcinoma stage III.

Renna had a radical mastectomy performed on her right breast and a simple mastectomy on her left breast.

Renna's attorneys argued following the initial biopsy results Schadt should have followed up with a more complete biopsy that removed a larger tissue sample to test.