Georgia Supreme Court to Decide Whether Hindsight Jury Charge Frequently Given in Medical MalpracticeTrials is Error
A medical malpractice case which has implications for future lawsuits brought in Georgia headed to the Supreme Court last month. The case involved four doctors who were cleared of negligence in the treatment of a child diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Justin Smith contracted the infectious disease in 2003. He was 13 at the time. The four doctors failed to diagnose his symptoms and he was later rushed to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. By the time he was correctly diagnosed and treated, he had already suffered some amount of brain damage.
His parents sued the doctors for $3.8 million, but the four physicians were cleared of all charges by a jury. The doctors were able to prove that since the disease is so rare, they were unable to diagnose the symptoms correctly. Lawyers for the doctors also argued that there had been no permanent damage to the boy's health. Now, the Supreme Court gets to decide if a hindsight instruction given to the jury during that trial was error and whether is affected the outcome of the case. The family's lawyer has argued that the hindsight jury instruction should only be given if there was no information available to the physician at the time. The family claimed that the doctors knew about the tick bite and that that should have been sufficient to constitute foreseeability that some injury would result if their son was not treated. The doctors' lawyers insist that the hallmark sign of the disease, rashes, were not present when the child was brought to them for treatment.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Pursuing medical malpractice claims can be a time consuming and complex process, requiring the expertise of an Atlanta medical malpractice lawyer who has years of experience litigating claims and recovering damages for injured patients. If you have been injured as the result of the negligence of a doctor or other healthcare provider, contact a Georgia medical malpractice lawyer at my office for a free consultation.
