Marion v. Little

Summary

Sonya Dubose underwent an operation to remove her left kidney. During the operation, the surgeons tied off the abdominal aorta, which controlled blood flow to her other kidney and legs. This was not discovered until two days after the first operation, despite her complaints of extreme pain and urinary difficulties. At that time, another operation was performed to remove the sutures. However, Dubose lost the use of her remaining kidney and of her legs. She died five months later. Prior to the case being filed, plaintiff settled with the chief surgeon, who actually tied off the wrong artery. Defendants in the lawsuit are the assistant surgeon, who allegedly failed to notice the error during the surgery, and the various other doctors who failed to discover the error while she was in recovery, as well as their various practices and the hospital. Because the interests of the various defendants are adverse, they have separate counsel and there are eight different law firms in the case. It's quite possible the jury will apportion a substantial portion of the fault to the main surgeon, reducing the eventual size of the judgment..

Outcome

Verdict for plaintiff:
Wrongful death: $11,000,000
Estate claim (med expenses, pain and suffering, funeral) $25,000,000

TOTAL: $36,000,000

Assignment of fault:

North Fulton Medical Center 12.5%
Non-party Dr. Harry Rutland 87.5%

Defendants W. Glover Little, Thomas Smith, M. Rabiul Alam, Madhu Reddy, and Ashar Salman and their practices were not at fault.

The verdict will be reduced by 87.5% and judgment entered for the remainder against North Fulton Medical Center.

Fulton County State Court