Olivia M. Lazor, a third-term Mercer County commissioner, and the Sharon doctor she sued for medical malpractice reached an out-of-court settlement Monday.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Mrs. Lazor, a cancer survivor, filed a nine-count civil suit against Dr. William R. Henwood and three other parties just less than two years ago. Five of the counts were against Henwood, alleging his professional "conduct was ... reckless, wanton and outrageous."

The four other counts -- two against UPMC Horizon and one each against Dr. Joseph R. Kalik of Hermitage and the Pathology Education and Research Foundation in Pittsburgh -- were previously dismissed.

The case against Henwood was set to go before a jury on Monday.

One hundred and ten people were called for the jury selection. Mercer County Court Administrator Peter Morin said the pool was unusually large because Mrs. Lazor is a public figure.

No jurors were picked to hear the case.

The potential jurors dawdled all day in and around the Mercer County Courthouse as Pittsburgh attorneys for Mrs. Lazor and Henwood met in closed chambers for about six hours.

Jay H. Feldstein, who represented Mrs. Lazor, said the two sides "amicably resolved" the suit behind closed doors and added that, as a condition of their agreement, terms of the deal would remain confidential.

"We're very comfortable with the result," Feldstein said.

Part of the settlement will come from the Pennsylvania Catastrophe Loss Fund, on the condition that the settlement not be disclosed, Feldstein said.

Mrs. Lazor, who declined to comment on the settlement, had been seeking damages of more than $25,000 for each of the five counts she filed against Henwood.

In Pennsylvania, those suing over alleged medical malpractice and demanding a jury trial -- as Mrs. Lazor did -- can only seek damages totaling "in excess of $25,000" for each count filed. In other words, they can't sue for specific amounts of money.

Mrs. Lazor sought damages from Henwood on two counts of negligence, two counts of (allegedly performing a medical procedure without his patient's) informed consent and one count of loss of consortium, which was filed by Mrs. Lazor's husband William.

According to the original complaint filed by Mrs. Lazor in July 2000:

Dr. Kalik performed a colonoscopy on Mrs. Lazor in April 1998. UPMC Horizon and Pathology Education and Research Foundation examined some of the extracted tissue and determined that Mrs. Lazor had a benign (or, non-life-threatening) tumor on her colon.

Kalik recommended that the tumor be surgically removed, and Henwood -- on staff at UPMC Horizon -- backed up that opinion. Henwood headed up the surgical team that tried to remove the tumor on May 5, 1998, and after the surgery he told Mrs. Lazor that the tumor had been removed.

During a May 22, 1998, post-op visit, Mrs. Lazor told Henwood she had been suffering abdominal pain and digestive problems since the surgery. Henwood then told Mrs. Lazor and her husband that the tumor had not been removed, and added that "during the surgical procedure he was never able to locate the (tumor), so he decided to remove 21 centimeters of the colon in what he assumed was the location of the (tumor identified by Kalik)."

During a June 1998 visit with Henwood, Henwood advised Mrs. Lazor to have another colonoscopy in three to four months, after she had time to heal. In August, Kalik recommended that she have the Cleveland Clinic Foundation perform the procedure.

During the second colonoscopy on Sept. 21, 1998, a Cleveland Clinic doctor discovered that the tumor was still residing "some 3 inches from the area of (Henwood's) incision point made during the May 5, 1998, procedure."

The doctor was able to remove 70 percent of the tumor during that second colonoscopy. Three days later, Mrs. Lazor was told that the tissue extracted and examined showed the tumor to be malignant.

The potentially life-threatening tumor was removed about two weeks later. During that procedure, a second Cleveland Clinic doctor also "repaired the substandard manner in which Henwood had reattached and stapled the colon segments because (it) had caused a defect in (Mrs. Lazor's) bowels."

After that surgery, Mrs. Lazor was "diagnosed with cancer of the liver and ... informed and therefore believes that the liver cancer originated from the colon."

Before the settlement was reached, Mrs. Lazor said that she had surgery in 2000 to remove the cancer from her liver and underwent chemotherapy. She said she now goes for follow-up checkups every six months, and all indications thus far have been good. "I'm just trying to do my job and get some work done," she said from behind a stack of paperwork on her office desk.

A message left by The Herald at Henwood's Sharon office was not returned.