Family awarded millions after medical malpractice trial

A local family is hoping a recent jury verdict sends a message to doctors treating patients in the future. A woman was left nearly incapacitated after treatment in a Sandusky hospital.

Her family now tries to move on with a new normal.

Marlyn Day is a retired speech pathologist. She loved reading and looking out her window at Lake Erie. That’s a world that now feels a million miles away in just five short years.

Marlyn Day fell ill in October of 2013. These days she has no use of her legs and can only use one arm. She hasn't been home since the illness and is not expected to go back.

"It's a sad thing that she has to be like this because I thought she'd live longer than me. I thought I'd be the one that dies first," said Bob Day, Marlyn’s husband.

Her husband Bob visits her every day in her Vermilion care facility. The problems began after a trip to Firelands hospital in Sandusky. The Day family attorney says she went there not feeling well. After several scans and tests she was treated with steroids for a brain tumor. A tumor she never had. Instead an infection was growing in her brain.

"They were grossly negligent in failing to follow what the rules require," said Day family attorney Chad Tuschman.

Tuschman told 13abc that the steroids made the infection worse, leaving her in the state she's in today.

"By them giving her steroids without antibiotics it allowed that infection in the brain, those abscesses to become larger. They got bigger within the brain, they spread to other portions of the brain," said Tuschman.

The family sued two neurologists and recently won a jury verdict of over $7 million dollars, money in part to cover past and future medical care for Marlyn. No money will make the situation better but Bob Day says they're enjoying the time they have.

"I know she's a heck of a lot different than she was but we still have an enjoyable time in the evening when I am there," said Bob Day.

The neurologists sued in this case are Nicole Danner and Khaled Yassine along with the Advanced Neurological Associates practice.

13abc reached out to their attorneys but did not hear back Wednesday.

If this was treated properly, the family believes Marlyn would have walked out of that hospital in 2013 and have a healthy life today.