The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a lawsuit against a hospital can move forward, despite assertions by the hospital that the COVID-19 judicial emergency did not apply to the conditions of the suit.
The case is a medical malpractice suit filed by Jami Lynn Golden against Floyd Medical Center. In 2016, Golden visited the Emergency Room at Floyd Medical Center (FMC), complaining of abdominal pain, fever, chills, and nausea. At some point during her visit, there was a computer-generated sepsis alert, however, Golden was discharged. Medical staff instructed her to return to a primary care doctor in two to three days. Golden became sicker and was admitted to Redmond Regional Medical Center Intensive Care Unit in septic shock. As a result of her illness, parts of her fingers and toes were amputated due to necrosis.
The hospital argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed, citing an expiration of the five-year medical malpractice statute of repose. In Floyd County Superior Court, a judge denied that argument by the hospital, citing the “Order Declaring Statewide Judicial Emergency,” which began in 2020. The Georgia Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, saying the statute was not tolled -or paused – because of the emergency order.
This past week, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision. The state’s high court said the emergency order did toll the repose statute. It further ruled that there was nothing in the state or U.S. Constitution which would have required the statute not to be tolled.
As a result, Golden’s lawsuit will be allowed to continue.
You can read the lawsuit here.
I took my dad to Floyd because he’d had a stroke this year. I seen from the get-go that it was going to be a shitshow. I even requested he be transferred to Redmond but they never did. When he was discharged a few days later I told them I would never bring him back to Floyd and would suggest to everyone I knew to do the same because of the level of incompetence at that place.