Record settlement helped create facility at OSU to study brain cancer
Reprinted with permission from The Columbus Dispatch

Correction: CORRECTION PUBLISHED SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2004 PAGE 3A -- The law firm representing Robert Dardinger, who won the largest jury verdict in Ohio history, received about $7,800 for expenses. Because of a reporter's error, a graphic on Page C2 of Friday's Metro & State section listed the wrong figure.

This is what Esther would have wanted.

When former Johnstown teacher and coach Robert Dardinger won the biggest jury verdict in Ohio history five years ago, he promised he would use a large portion of the money for researching the cancer that killed his wife.

Last night, the Esther L. Dardinger Neuro-Oncology Center -- which already is paying for two high-powered cancer researchers -- was formally dedicated at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute at Ohio State University.

"This center is Esther's legacy and my prayer is that, God willing, it will be a legacy of hope,'' Dardinger said.

On Nov. 6, 1997, Esther Dardinger, 49, died of breast cancer that had spread to her brain. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its parent company, Anthem Insurance, stopped paying for treatments at the OSU hospital even though Mrs. Dardinger's doctor said they were shrinking her brain tumors.

Now, that doctor -- Herbert Newton -- is a co-director of the center, along with Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, who was lured from Harvard to OSU.

Newton called Dardinger an inspiration to the doctors and nurses who treated her, saying she worried about how family members would cope once the cancer took its toll.

"To have this kind of legacy for her memory, I think, is wonderful,'' he said. "We are really hoping in the next couple of years to add a couple of more researchers who are world-class.''

Chiocca said the center already is one of only a handful in the United States that combat cancer of the brain, one of the most difficult types to treat. He expressed hope that the OSU facility could play a key role in every doctor's dream: finding a cure for the dreaded disease.

"I hope in a few years, Esther will look down on us here and give us a thumbs up,'' Chiocca said.

On Sept. 24, 1999, a Licking County jury awarded Dardinger $51.5 million. An appeals court overturned the ruling, but most of the judgment was restored in a 4-3 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court almost exactly two years ago. With interest and legal costs, Anthem ended up paying almost $50 million.

The Dardinger case became a touchstone in the battle for patients' rights, and the record-setting verdict caused many insurers to "humanize'' their approach to policyholders, said Elizabeth Burkett, one of the dardingers'attorneys.

Dardinger's desire to pursue cancer treatment for his wife received a push from the Ohio Supreme Court through an unusual legal twist that was criticized nationally.

In a decision written by Justice Paul E. Pfeifer -- who attended last night's dedication, along with trial Judge Gregory L. Frost, now on the federal bench -- the justices hit Anthem for $32.5 million but unilaterally gave almost $14.3 million of the total to the cancer-research fund at OSU that they created.

The move raised eyebrows across the country because neither the university nor the hospital were a party to the legal action.

Dardinger said he is glad the money is going for top-notch research, rather than merely paying for a building.

"Esther's hope was that even though she couldn't be cured, she could give hope to help others.''
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