A Berks County jury has ordered a Reading-area gastroenterologist and his practice to pay $4.35 million after finding that a missed bleeding ulcer led to the death of 52-year-old Kelly Lynn Jones in 2021. The verdict, handed down on September 18, 2026, followed a five-day trial in Berks County.
Legal Newsline reported $4 million in wrongful death damages and $325,000 in Survival Act damages, a combined $4.325 million. Jones's children, Evan Jones and Hayley Jones, filed the civil suit against Dr. Robert Cooper and Digestive Disease Associates, as Reading Eagle reported.
A Missed Diagnosis at the Hospital
Jones first sought help on October 13, 2021, going to an urgent care center complaining of severe abdominal pain, per the Reading Eagle account. The urgent care center sent her to an emergency room, where the treating physician recognized she needed evaluation by a gastroenterologist for potential bleeding.
Dr. Cooper saw Jones the following morning and attributed her pain to multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting the bone marrow, rather than diagnosing the bleeding ulcer, according to the same report. Her medical history and subsequent lab results indicated a bleeding ulcer, but her diagnosis was never reassessed before the hospital discharged her on October 16, 2021.
How Hospital Protocol Blocked a Second Look
Other attending specialists at the hospital called for an upper endoscopy to check for an ulcer, but no gastroenterologist reassessed Jones because Dr. Cooper had already signed off on her care, per Legal Newsline's reporting. Clinical guidelines from the American College of Gastroenterology recommend that hospitalized patients with overt upper gastrointestinal bleeding undergo diagnostic upper endoscopy within 24 hours, since the procedure allows direct visualization and treatment of actively bleeding ulcers.
About a week after her discharge, Jones's son found her barely responsive at home, according to the Reading Eagle. She was rushed back to the hospital in hemorrhagic shock from the bleeding ulcer and treated for it, but she had already suffered a significant anoxic brain injury from severe oxygen deprivation tied to the internal bleeding. She died roughly three weeks after her initial discharge, per the Reading Eagle's timeline.
Legal Framework Behind the Verdict
Under Pennsylvania's wrongful death and survival statutes, 42 Pa. C.S. §§ 8301–8302, wrongful death actions compensate immediate family members for financial and emotional losses, while survival actions preserve the personal injury claims the deceased could have brought had she survived, according to Marzella & Associates. The jury awarded damages for both wrongful death and survival claims.
That lack of a damages ceiling helps explain how a Berks County jury could reach a multi-million dollar figure in a single case. Under the state's Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act, expert witnesses in malpractice trials must hold an unrestricted active license, practice or teach in the same specialty as the defendant physician, and carry board certification if the defendant is certified — standards plaintiff attorneys David Inscho and Mark Fuchs had to satisfy during the trial.
Attorneys and Aftermath
Inscho and Fuchs, who represented Evan and Hayley Jones, work for the firm Kline & Specter. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they were pleased by the verdict, while attorneys for the defendants were not immediately available for comment, the Reading Eagle reported. Whether the defense will pursue post-trial motions or an appeal remains an open question.
Digestive Disease Associates was a defendant in the case. Judge Madelyn S. Fudeman presided over the trial.
The trial brought a medical malpractice dispute before a Berks County jury. Hoodline previously reported on another major jury verdict secured by Kline & Specter, underscoring the firm's continued presence in high-stakes Pennsylvania malpractice litigation.
