A Burlington County jury on Jan. 30 awarded a gross verdict of $1.7 million, reduced by 30% to $1.19 million based on a preexisting condition, in Wacker v. Magasiny, a medical malpractice suit claiming that an emergency room patient’s delayed diagnosis led her to suffer permanent injuries.

On the morning of Sept. 14, 2014, Rebecca Wacker arrived at the emergency room at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly with severe lower back pain and leg weakness, and she was evaluated and released. She returned a few hours later and was then diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome, which affects the base of the spine, her lawyer, Gary Ginsberg of Ginsberg & O’Connor in Cherry Hill, said. She underwent emergency surgery.