James Davis fell nine times in the nine months he stayed at North Macon Healthcare, said the lawyer for his family, Thomas S. Edwards Jr.
Davis broke his hip during one of the falls. The nursing home did not take him to a hospital for 10 days and did not notify his family of the fall or of the hip replacement surgery he had as a result, Edwards said.
Davis, who had dementia, subsequently fell out of bed again, splitting the hip replacement. His hip then became infected because the nursing home did not properly treat him. His family chose to forego the only procedure doctors said might have saved him: amputating one leg at the hip and inserting a permanent feeding tube, said Edwards.
The jury returned the verdict on April 20 after a two-week trial. Edwards expects Judge Lamar W. Sizemore Jr. of the Bibb County Superior Court to sign it shortly.
The plaintiff was represented by Edwards of Peek, Cobb & Edwards, and James L. Ford Sr. and James A. Attwood of Ford & Barnhart.
Brynda R. Insley of Insley and Race counseled the defense.
The case is James Scott Davis et al., v. Pruitt Corporation and Southern Medical of North Macon, Inc., No. 040-CV-23929 (Bibb Super., April20).
Deadly Helicopter Crash
A suit over the fatal crash of a helicopter ambulance in South Carolina ended April 13 with a confidential settlement. Two of the plaintiffs’ three lawyers were from the Atlanta-based firm Harris Penn & Lowry.
Allecia Goodwin sustained a leg injury when a truck hit her at a rest stop near Greenville, S.C. Two medical air transport companies had already refused to transport her because of inclement weather.
A helicopter from a third company, Med-Trans Aeromedical Corp., came to get Goodwin. It lifted upward without incident but crashed into trees when it began moving forward. The crash killed Goodwin, the pilot, a nurse and an emergency medical technician.
The pilot, Robert Giard, was a qualified pilot, said plaintiff’s attorney Stephen G. Lowry. “This was just bad judgment on that night,” he said.
Goodwin’s estate sued Med-Trans and Giard’s estate.
The case took place at the 13th Judicial Circuit of Greenville County. It went through several rotating judges, as is the practice at that court, until the start of trial, Lowry said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs were Lowry and Jeffrey R. Harris in the Savannah office of Harris Penn & Lowry, and Grady E. McMchan of Wilkerson & Lewis.
The defense lawyers were Mark C. Fava, Ethan M. Rosenzweig and William S. Brown of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.
The case is Goodwin, v. Med-Trans Corporation et al., No. 2005-CP-23-3029 (Greenville County).
