Groton attorney Joseph P. Zeppieri, who also is a retired orthopedic surgeon, won a $6 million verdict for a Trumbull family Wednesday in a medical malpractice case in Bridgeport Superior Court.

Zeppieri represented the estate of Dwayne Kantorowski, who died of cardiac arrest in 2011 at age 45.

Kantorowski, who years earlier had been disabled by a brain tumor, had gone to the emergency room at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport with symptoms of a stroke, according to Zeppieri.

Doctors performed an electrocardiogram test that indicated Kantorowski had had two heart attacks in the past. Though the emergency room doctor recognized the heart problems on the EKG, he called in a neurologist, based on Kantorowski's symptoms.

Kantorowski was admitted to the hospital. His own doctor, Kristine M. Lisi, did a brief physical exam the next day, Zeppieri said.

Three days later, Lisi signed Kantorowski's discharge papers without addressing the heart problem. Three days after that, Kantorowski went into cardiac arrest.

Though he was resuscitated, he remained comatose and died about three weeks later. In the meantime, doctors determined one of Kantorowski's coronary arteries was completely occluded, a condition that could have been treated, Zeppieri said.

"If they had done a stent at any time, he could have survived," Zeppieri said. "Most doctors work awfully hard and live up to their pledges to their patients, but there are a few that don't."

Following a three-week trial, the jury deliberated about 4½ hours and found that Lisi, who Zeppieri said had not read the EKG results, and the emergency room physician, who had been released from the lawsuit, were each 50 percent at fault and awarded $6 million in damages. 

Because the emergency room physician had been released from the suit, Zeppieri said, only $3 million of the verdict will be awarded. Kantorowski's parents are his beneficiaries.

Attorney Eugene A. Cooney, who represented Lisi, could not immediately be reached for comment. Judge Dale W. Radcliffe had presided at the trial.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN