In 2018, Dr. Bradford Wall, a partner at Georgia Bone & Joint Surgeons, P. C. (“GBJ”), performed a successful total knee replacement on Margaret Keel. During her overnight stay at GBJ, she was prescribed narcotic pain medications for her recovery. The narcotics can slow a patient’s breathing rate, which is a risk for patients like Keel, who suffer from obesity and sleep apnea, and require a continuous positive airway pressure (“CPAP”) machine…medicalmalpracticelawyers, $6.5M Georgia Medical Malpractice Verdict Affirmed
GBJ staffed two nurses, Valerie Blankenship and Jackie Croft, to provide care for the overnight patients. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Blankenship went into Keel’s room to provide antibiotics and discovered that Keel’s CPAP mask had been removed and that Keel was unresponsive. Blankenship could not find Keel’s pulse and called for Croft. When Croft arrived, they began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (“CPR”) on Keel. At approximately 11:17 p.m., Blankenship called emergency services.
Emergency medical technicians determined that Keel was in ventricular fibrillation and shocked her using the defibrillator prior to leaving GBJ for the hospital. While at the hospital, Keel was put into a medically induced coma, in order to “save [her] brain.” Ultimately, Keel suffered a hypoxic brain injury due to her cardiac arrest while in recovery at GBJ. As a result, Keel suffers from significant limitations on her mobility and independence, and she had to move into an assisted living home.
Keel filed a lawsuit against GBJ and Blakenship for medical malpractice, and she later added Wall as a defendant. Following the trial, the jury found Wall and Blankenship not liable, but found GBJ liable and awarded Keel $6,500,000.