Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

As a lawyer in Atlanta who specializes in dental malpractice and dental nerve injuries, the following struck me as curious: A 72-year-old man could not figure out what was wrong with his throat. Following a minor operation on his abdomen, he had been in pain, coughing up blood and unable to swallow solid food for almost a week.

But when emergency room doctors examined the back of the man’s throat, they found nothing unusual. After ordering a chest X-ray and blood tests, they told the man he had a lower respiratory tract infection, and he was sent home with medication. The pain, doctors said, was likely a lingering side effect from having a tube inserted in his throat during the surgery.

It wasn’t until the man’s condition worsened, prompting a second trip to the emergency room, that doctors finally discovered the real source of his symptoms: His dentures, which he thought were lost during an operation eight days earlier, had actually been lodged in his throat the entire time, according to an article published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Case Reports.

Dentists and dental offices in Georgia, and throughout the country are liable for all of the injuries that stem from malpractice. This includes claims for wrongful death that results from dental care that is below the standard of care. I have seen dental patients choking, drowning and bleeding to death in the dental chair–or shortly after the treatment.

A university has paid $225,000 to settle lawsuits filed over the treatment of a man who bled to death after having 12 teeth extracted in preparation for a liver transplant.

The university issued the following statement, “[We] would like to extend again its heartfelt condolences to [the] family. Under any circumstance, the passing of a patient is devastating to faculty and staff. [W]e do our collective best to heal, save lives and advance health. Patient privacy laws prevent us from discussing the case further.”

In a remarkable example of activist interference from the bench, the judge who sat for the jury trial of a police shooting has attempted to set aside the jury’s verdict and reject their award of damages to the family of the victim in the deadly shooting.

The judge, last week overturned a jury’s decision that granted more damages to the family of a woman who was fatally shot by police after an hours long standoff that had been partly streamed live on social media. Cases like this have occurred in Georgia and resulted in large recoveries, mainly due to the police not taking reasonable steps or acting reasonably under the circumstances. Most people refer to this as unreasonable force.

The judge has made it clear that he would become “the 13th juror” and has specifically tried to side-step the jury’s verdict. The woman was shot several times by a police officer in as she sat in her apartment with her toddler son. In fact, her son was so close to her when the officer opened fire, that  her son was struck in the face by the officer’s gunfire.

A dental malpractice wrongful death case has been filed against the dentist and dental practice who treated a 2 year-old boy. In a horrible set of circumstances, the toddler was under general anesthesia while having 9 teeth extracted. The oxygen tank that he was hooked up to and which was there in case of an emergency that was supposed to save him was not working properly. The allegations in the lawsuit include that a staff member at the dentist office repeatedly disabled the heart monitor alarm that the boy was hooked up to.

While the medical examiner listed the cause of death as “undetermined,” it is clear from the facts, as reported, that the boy died as a result of the dental treatment he received on the day of his death. General anesthesia is especially dangerous when used on the very young, very old, and those who are not healthy. Proper and working equipment must be utilized and monitoring must be vigilant to avoid this type of horrible result.

During the lawsuit, discovery can be utilized to uncover what exactly happened in this tragedy and why? As with all other medical providers, the dentist and the anesthesiologist in this case must always comply with the standard of care and any violation of the standard of care is considered dental malpractice or negligence. In most states, a properly trained anesthesiologist (or a medical provider who is similarly trained and licensed to monitor anesthesia delivery) must be on hand and monitoring a dental patient when they are under general anesthesia. This requirement would also include testing all of the equipment associated with the procedure prior to the administration of the general anesthesia. It appears in this case that some of the equipment was not properly working or not hooked up correctly and this is what apparently caused or substantially contributed to the death.

Many teenagers have their wisdom teeth removed. If the extractions are performed while the patient is still young, the procedure is less likely to lead to complications. Tragically, this was not the case according to reports, for the family of a 17 year-old who died from alleged anesthesia complications during a wisdom tooth extraction. The teen was under general anesthesia in the oral surgeon’s office when her heart rate dropped dramatically. Despite a call being placed to emergency 9-1-1 and CPR being administered before the paramedics could arrive, the teen died from a lack of oxygen to the brain caused by her heart failing.

In addition to paying the $2 million settlement, the oral surgeon who caused the death was temporarily suspended from practicing dentistry 6 weeks after the incident and disciplined by the state board of dentistry.

All medical providers, whether they be doctors, nurses, dentists or oral surgeons have a duty to administer anesthesia appropriately and to properly monitor the patient during and after the procedure to ensure there are no complications related to the anesthesia. If there are complications, the medical provider must comply with the standard of care and uncover the complication and treat it in an appropriate and timely manner. Failure to comply with the standard of care constitutes negligence and the practitioner is liable for all damages (up to and including death) that flow from the negligence.

The official code of Georgia, O.C.G.A. § 51-4-1 governs the measure of damages in a Georgia wrongful death case and states, in pertinent part: ” [The] Full value of the life of the decedent, as shown by the evidence means the full value of the life of the decedent without deducting for any of the necessary or personal expenses of the decedent had he [or she] lived.”  While the measure of damages for wrongful death varies by state, Georgia is unique in that the laws of Georgia allow for damages to be calculated based on the value of the decedent’s life to him. With this in mind, it follows that the measure of damages in a Georgia wrongful death lawsuit are the same as those calculated in a negligence case in which the injured victim survives but is rendered permanently disabled by the negligence. The only exception, obviously, is that the wrongful death litigant cannot recover for future medical and living expenses, since they are no longer living. The full value of life is made up of 2 categories: (1) the economic value of the deceased person’s normal life expectancy and; (2) and  “an intangible element incapable of exact proof.” (See, Peeler v. Central of Georgia Railway Co., 163 Ga. 784 (1927). When the jury considers the evidence of the decedent’s life from the decedent’s perspective to determine what he lost rather than from the perspective of what the plaintiff’s loss was, the value is not what the decedent would place on his life. Any charge by the Judge to the jury, should make clear that the value of the life is not that which the decedent would place on his or her own life, but the value is, in fact, based upon what the decedent lost. While, from a practical perspective, this may seem like a distinction without a meaningful difference, it is important that the jury charges accurately reflect the law and the correct methodology that the jurors must employ in calculating damages. Otherwise, one risks a mistrial or the verdict being overturned on appeal. A decedent’s personal expenses (such as income taxes) are not to be considered by the jury when calculating wrongful death damages in Georgia. A properly instructed jury, which returns a substantial verdict in a wrongful death case, will not be overturned or disturbed, absent proof that they were guided by improper considerations.

It might be surprising to learn that punitive damages are not available to in a wrongful death action in Georgia. This is so because the damages are already in the nature of a civil penalty against the defendant and to impose punitive damages in this type of case would be duplicative. Punitive damages are, however, recoverable by the estate in connection with the injuries and pain and suffering endured by the deceased before the death. In other words, if there is proof of “that willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression,” or “that entire want of care which would raise the presumption of conscious indifference for the life of another,” punitive damages can be recovered by the estate of the deceased.

Attorney Robert J. Fleming has been handling wrongful death cases, automobile accident cases, personal injury cases, dental malpractice and medical malpractice lawsuits for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of another for more than 20 years in and around Atlanta, Georgia and its surrounding areas, including Alpharetta, Austell, Avondale Estates, Chamblee, College Park, Conyers, Duluth, Decatur, Doraville, Hapeville, Johns Creek, Jonesboro, Lawrenceville, Norcross, Peachtree City, Riverdale, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Stone Mountain, and Smyrna. If you have been seriously injured and would like quality legal representation, contact Robert J. Fleming directly on (404) 525-5150 or contact us online.

According to a recent study, medical malpractice could be the third-leading cause of death in the United State after cancer and heart disease.

Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research, said in an interview that the category includes everything from bad doctors to more systemic issues such as communication breakdowns when patients are handed off from one department to another. “It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care,” Makary said. Makary explained that he and co-author Michael Daniel, also from Johns Hopkins, conducted the analysis to shed more light on a problem that many hospitals and health-care facilities try to avoid talking about.

Respiratory disease, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, flu and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide round out the leading causes of death in America. Interestingly, medical malpractice and accidents account for almost 400,000 deaths each year in the United State. To term these causes of death as “accidents” is a bit misleading, since many of these incidents are caused by the negligence of a third-party and should more accurately be termed wrongful death. In the case of medical error, the negligence is attributed to the doctor performing below the applicable standard of care which leads to death and should more aptly be termed medical malpractice. In the case of an accident, many times the incident is caused by the negligence of a third-party tortfeasor, which could be a careless automobile driver, negligent premises owner or a person who does something negligent which leads to the death of another.

As this recent article detailing the death of a young child as a result of dental care shows, damages from dental malpractice can include serious injuries such as damage to the dental nerves, pain, numbness and even death.

After their 6-year-old son died following a dental procedure, a California couple went to the California Legislature, hoping a new law could prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedy. Unfortunately, what they learned is that, sometimes, the quest for truth is not what the state dental boards strive for. According to the article, in California, for example, the California Dental Association spent about $664,000 lobbying last year – more than the pharmaceutical industry trade group or the association for Hollywood movie studios.

As an Atlanta attorney who regularly handles dental malpractice claims, I have been interviewed on just how difficult it is to know what the Georgia Board of Dentistry is and is not doing when it comes to investigations. While it is hard to know just what the Georgia Board of Dentistry is up to, we do know that they rarely take action, and this is unfortunate because, as discussed above, dental malpractice can and often does lead to horrific injuries which in many cases are permanent.

Despite Atlanta drivers spending more and more time in their cars, the number of highway deaths in Georgia has decreased to the lowest rate since 1949. According to the Federal Transportation Department, 32,788 occupants of cars were killed in highway accidents during 2010. This is a 3% decrease from 2009 levels. Georgia and the Southeast trends follow closely the national statistics.

While the trend downward is promising, when you think about it, over 30,000 Americans died in car accidents last year alone–a sobering number, to say the least. As an Atlanta car accident lawyer, I am fully aware of the different types of auto accidents that lead to serious personal injury and death. We all must be vigilant in our attempts to continue this trend of better safety for the well-being of all who travel our roads.

Georgia recognizes two separate and distinct types of wrongful death claims. The first is a claim to establish the “full value of the life of the deceased.” This claim is brought by or on behalf of the surviving family members of the deceased person. It includes monetary damages related to both the financial and intangible value of the deceased person’s life, such as: