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A part-time Isles of Capri resident who sought medical attention for a persistent fever, headache and other symptoms was incorrectly diagnosed and put on the wrong antibiotics but it was too late, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Collier County Circuit Court.

The defendants in the May 8 lawsuit filed by the estate of Larry Bowman are the former Cleveland Clinic Naples and three of its employed physicians and one physician’s assistant at the time of Bowman’s death on March 1, 2005.

The physicians are Dr. Mark Goldstein, an internist now in private practice in Bonita Springs; Dr. Scott Madwar, an internist who now has a concierge practice in Naples and Dr. Maurice Hanson, a neurologist who is part of the group practice affiliated with the current hospital, Physicians Regional Medical Center-Pine Ridge, owned by Naples-based Health Management Associates. HMA is not named in the lawsuit.

Bowman, 66, a retiree who split his time between Southwest Florida and the St. Louis area, went to saw Goldstein starting on Feb. 5, 2005, for a fever that wouldn’t go away, according to the lawsuit. He had undergone surgery elsewhere in Naples a month earlier for ureteric stent placement.

Goldstein noted Bowman had had a fever for three weeks, had lost 15 pounds and lost his appetite. He ordered laboratory tests and told Bowman to stop all medications and return in two days, according to the complaint. Three days later, Bowman was seen by a urologist, not named in the lawsuit, and an abdominal CAT scan was done Feb. 11, 2005.

In the days that followed, Bowman and his wife, Teresa Bowman, called Goldstein’s office complaining repeatedly of his fever and how he had developed headaches, according to the lawsuit. He was prescribed a pain reliever but it did not work.

Bowman finally went to the emergency room at the former Cleveland Clinic Naples on Feb. 21, 2005 and was admitted after being seen by a neurologist.

Upon admission, Bowman was seen by Madwar, employed then as a hospitalist, who ordered an MRI of the brain and a repeat CT scan of the stomach, according to the complaint. A spinal tap was ordered along with antibiotics and fluids.

Two days later, Bowman was seen again by Hanson, a neurologist, and his "impression was partially treated bacterial meningitis," according to the lawsuit. He ordered antibiotics.

Bowman’s condition nevertheless did not improve and more tests indicated an inflammatory reaction and meningoencephalitis, according to the complaint. Antiviral medications were ordered.

With no signs of improvement, another spinal tap was ordered and Madwar, the hospitalist, suspected atypical meningitis with tuberculosis meningitis "in the forefront of possibilities," according to the lawsuit.

Bowman’s medications were changed but he continued to decline. He was non-responsive and tests indicated brain death. His family withdrew supportive measures.

The lawsuit says the hospital and Bowman’s doctors failed to recognize that his symptoms and test results were suggestive of tuberculosis and that he should have been put on anti-tuberculosis medications. In addition, the defendants failed to realize that steroids alone are not the appropriate treatment course for tuberculosis meningitis, the lawsuit says.

"They should have put him in the hospital when he had the fever," said Bowman’s widow, Teresa Bowman. "They should have done the spinal tap from the start."

She said her husband, who owned a music store in the St. Louis before retiring, was healthy except for needing the ureteric stent for a horseshoe-shaped kidney.

"He was a pilot, a boater, a fisherman. He had a Harley," she said. "I couldn’t keep up with him."

The couple had been married 2 1/2 years. He had been coming to Southwest Florida for 28 years, she said. He has two grown daughters from a previous marriage.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Larry Bowman’s brother, David Bowman, of St. Louis, who is the executor of the estate.

"(The lawsuit) ought to be pretty self-explanatory," David Bowman said.

Physicians named as defendants declined to comment; their defense is being handled by Cleveland Clinic since they were employed physicians when they were treating Bowman.

"We have not received the suit or the filing and if and when we do, we will have to review it," Eileen Sheil, spokeswoman for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, said in a prepared statement.