From the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel December 6, 1996

DALLAS (AP)- A North Texas couple whose son died of a misdiagnosed heart condition has won a million-dollar settlement in a malpractice lawsuit against three doctors and a hospital.

Cathy and Jerry Peel of Waxahachie will receive a settlement from the University of Texas System and the affiliated Children's Medical Center of Dallas. Their 14-year-old son, Michael, died in 1994 after a football practice.

Wednesday's settlement requires the UT System's insurance to pay an amount on behalf of Dr. Kurt Pflieger, who the couple's attorney contended had misread Michael's echocardiogram, along with a second amount on behalf of the other two doctors.

Pflieger and two other pediatric cardiologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center had cleared Michael to continue playing football.

"It gave me some answers that I desperately needed," said Mrs. Peel, 50. " I am a Christian and have been praying about this -- even praying for Dr. Pflieger. I don't want anyone else to go through this."

The lawsuit yielded details about the misdiagnosis of Michael's condition that doctors never gave them while he was alive, Mrs. Peel said.

"If you are holding yourself out as a specialist, you should also have a greater responsibility to a patient," she said.

The Peels on Wednesday were filing complaints against Pflieger and Drs. Ellen Weinstein and Kathleen M. Rotondo with the State Board of Medical Examiners, said the couple's attorney, Les Weisbrod of Dallas.

"The doctors told me Michael's heart was slightly enlarged but that it was an 'athlete's heart'-- that was consistent with his activities," Mrs. Peel said. "They told me to go home, that he could still play football but if he had fainting chest pains, to bring him back -- if not to come back in three years.

"We thought that it was all right," she said. "But his heart was really twice the size it was supposed to be."

Chris Lane, general counsel for Children's, and Dr. Charles Ginsberg, Chairman of UT Southwestern's pediatrics department, declined to comment on the settlement.

Weinstein and Pflieger since have left UT Southwestern, spokesman Roy Bode said.

Weisbrod said Ginsburg had testified that the medical school did not investigate Pflieger's response on his application that he had no prior criminal convictions.

Bode confirmed that UT Southwestern officials didn't know about the convictions. "I think that information was developed as the lawsuit took its course," he said.

Pflieger had earlier convictions in Georgia, records before State District Judge Joe B. Brown showed.

"He was convicted twice of driving under the influence of alcohol," Weisbrod said. "He lost his license and was required to go to counseling. His fiance had to drive him back and forth to work and it's hard to believe that people there didn't know of a problem or pass it on to UT."

Mrs. Peel said Michael's problem surfaced when, during a football physical at Waxahachie, a doctor heard a loud heart murmur. Michael was referred to an adult cardiologist in Dallas who recommended pediatric cardiologists at Children's and UT Southwestern. Pflieger, who had a one year echocardiology fellowship in Georgia, then misread the teen's echocardiogram, according to Weisbrod. "We contend one of the reasons he misread it was because of his alcohol or drug problems," he said.