Jury Hears ‘Marlboro Man’s’ Suit : Litigation: The Corona del Mar resident alleges in malpractice suit that a physician failed to diagnose his lung cancer.

SANTA ANA —  The former physician for a Corona del Mar resident once depicted as the “Marlboro Man” in cigarette advertisements failed to diagnose his lung cancer in 1989, according to testimony Tuesday in a malpractice lawsuit.

Jerrold A. Bloch, an attorney representing former male model Wayne McLaren, 49, said McLaren went to Dr. William Freud of Newport Beach two years ago “with varying complaints, including a cough,” but did not learn until eight months later, after a visit to a second doctor, that he had lung cancer.

According to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court, Freud had taken a chest X-ray of McLaren on Sept. 5, 1989, that clearly showed a tumor in the patient’s left lung. The lawsuit claimed that Freud never reviewed the X-ray.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that Freud was negligent by failing to follow the “accepted standard care” of physicians.

Freud’s attorney, Steven R. Van Sicklen of Santa Monica, contends that the doctor would have reviewed the X-ray in a follow-up visit with McLaren, but that McLaren never showed up for a scheduled appointment.

During opening statements to a jury in a civil trial on Monday, Van Sicklen said that Freud had followed proper procedures in treating the patient. Freud testified Tuesday that he ordered the X-ray but never examined it because McLaren failed to show up for the second appointment. It was his practice, he said, to review X-rays at follow-up appointments.

In 30 years of practice, Freud testified, he “never had an experience where I had done all this lab work and (the patient) never came back.”

Freud also said that McLaren went to see him because of an impotency problem and not a cough.

Bloch countered during a court recess Tuesday that his client did indeed show up for his follow-up visit on Sept. 26, 1089, and was told by the doctor that his health was fine. Even if McLaren did not make his appointment, Bloch argued that Freud should have read the X-ray anyway and tried to get in touch with McLaren to alert him to any problems.

Freud testified that he has since reviewed McLaren’s X-ray, and acknowledged that there was a tumor on a lung, about 6 centimeters long.

When asked by his attorney if he acted “in accordance with accepted” medical procedures, Freud responded: “I certainly did.” Van Sicklen declined to comment further on the case.

McLaren, who once did rodeo work, smoked about a pack and a half of cigarettes a day for about 25 years, his attorney said. In 1975, McLaren became one of several dozen men who modeled in cigarette print advertisements as a “Marlboro Man” for the cigarette maker.

In court Tuesday, McLaren sat silently and listened intently to the testimony presented before Superior Court Francisco F. Firmat.

Bloch said it was in May, 1990, that McLaren went to another doctor to correct a sinus problem, still unaware that he had cancer. Another chest X-ray was ordered by the second physician, and the cancer was diagnosed.

McLaren was told that he probably had only six months to live because of the advanced stage of the tumor.

McLaren underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment that appeared to successfully kill the cancer, Bloch said. But last January, it was learned that the cancer had spread to his brain. Doctors now give him only a few years to live, Bloch added.

Bloch said that had McLaren’s cancer been diagnosed when Freud first took the X-ray, his client’s chances of survival would have been much greater than they are now. He said the tumor was at a less advanced stage in September, 1989, compared to the growth that was discovered by the second doctor in May, 1990.

On Tuesday, Dr. Eugene B. Levin of Laguna Beach, testifying for McLaren, said that from his review of the facts, Freud should have read the X-ray before the follow-up appointment and attempted to contact McLaren if he didn’t show up.