A 22-year-old college student died several weeks after a doctor swapped his anticoagulant prescription for a baby aspirin regimen, a decision that led a jury this month to deliver what is believed to be the largest medical malpractice verdict in Howard County history.

The trial in Howard County Circuit Court ended Dec. 6 in favor of the parents of Zion Lewis, who filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice suit in May 2023 against Dr. Yousuf Abdul Gaffar and Maryland Oncology Hematology, one of the largest independent oncology and hematology groups in the state.

The lawsuit says Lewis had just returned to Howard County from college ahead of the winter holidays when his mom found him dead Dec. 17, 2021. An autopsy determined his cause of death to be a “lower left extremity occlusive thrombus” and “bilateral pulmonary arterial thromboemboli,” which are terms referring to blood clots, the suit states.

The jury awarded the plaintiffs $7.25 million, with $3.77 million going to Lewis’s mother Sandra Christie, of Columbia, and $3 million going to his father Toby Lewis, of York, Pennsylvania. Another $500,000 was awarded to the estate of Zion Lewis, which is being managed by Toby Lewis.

Neither Gaffar nor Maryland Oncology Hematology responded to messages requesting comment this week. They were represented by attorneys Charles “Chad” I. Joseph and Luciana Brienza, of Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones.

“Dr. Gaffar is an excellent hematologist who tried to help Zion,” Joseph said in an email Tuesday. “The evidence and testimony illustrated the reasonableness of his care. Our jury system is one of the best ways to resolve disputes. Unfortunately, I believe this case was one of the rare situations where the jury’s verdict, which includes its award of damages, did not match up with the evidence and testimony.”

The defendants, however, do not plan to appeal the decision, Joseph said.

Marissa B. Joelson and Aaron R. Parker, of Peter Angelos Law, represented Lewis’ parents in the lawsuit. In a statement, the parents’ attorneys said they “believe that the jury verdict conveyed a message to the Defendant that his care and treatment of Zion Lewis was unacceptable.”

“We believe that the jury carefully considered the claims and defenses, and correctly concluded that the defense’s case was predicated solely on excuses and blame-shifting fabricated for litigation without any objective proof documented in the medical records at the time of treatment,” they said in the statement.

Just a few weeks before Lewis’ death, the 22-year-old told Gaffar, who then worked at Maryland Oncology Hematology in Columbia, that he was running low on a blood thinner that he had been taking since suffering a massive pulmonary embolism in June 2020. He also told the doctor he was considering having surgery to remove a lipoma from his face, though no surgery date had been scheduled at the time, according to the lawsuit.

Gaffar told Lewis to complete his four remaining doses and then switch to a low-dose aspirin regimen, with instructions to stop five days prior to his surgery and to follow up within one year, according to the lawsuit.

The suit said Gaffar’s actions breached applicable standards of medical care.

Gaffar’s medical license is still active in Maryland and no disciplinary actions are listed on the Maryland Board of Physicians website. His name does not appear on Maryland Oncology Hemotology’s list of physicians. A LinkedIn profile lists his location as Denver.