WWHGD Wins Medical Negligence Case

Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial Partner Kevin Williams represented Wellstar Paulding Hospital in a case brought by victims of a motor vehicle accident, which was caused by a former patient.

The patient had been seen and twreated in the hospital emergency room earlier in the day. She had been given several medications, including Phenergan, and verbally warned not to drive. The medical record did not include documentation of the warning. The patient then left the hospital accompanied by her husband.

Less than an hour later, the patient drove her car across the center line of a highway and struck a van carrying seven members of a local Kiwanis club. The patient and her husband were killed, as were four passengers in the van. The other three passengers were seriously injured. An autopsy later confirmed the presence of amphetamines and methamphetamines in the patient/driver's system.

A 12-person jury returned a verdict in favor of the hospital and the physician, who had treated the patient in the emergency room.