Bibb County State Court jurors have returned a $13.7 million medical malpractice verdict against a pair of anesthesiologists following the death of a patient who endured surgery complications in 2017…law.com, Jan 2025
A 58-year-old patient Bennie Moore had been “morbidly obese” when she sought “bariatric surgery to help her with her weight issues and the health problems that the weight led to.”
She suffered from obstructive sleep apnea, [end-stage renal disease, or] ESRD, was on dialysis three times per week, was an insulin dependent diabetic, had hypertension, and had a mild stroke in 2012 that left her with some left-sided weakness and caused her to retire from teaching,”
EGD was required prior to consideration of scheduling the bariatric surgery. But when Moore underwent anesthesia for the preliminary EGD procedure in November 2017 under the anesthetic care of supervising Dr. David W. McKinney and physician assistant anesthesiologist Virginia B. Trogdon, complications occurred that contributed to Moore’s death the following month.
Shortly after the administration of Propofol by Trogdon, Bennie Moore stopped breathing but … Trogdon didn’t notice until the surgeon alerted her that the patient wasn’t breathing. By this point in time Bennie’s heart rate had dropped to 38 [beats per minute].
Bennie was without a pulse for eight minutes, according to the record and wasn’t breathing on her own for as much as 14 minutes [without assistance] from the ambu bag,”. Following this event, Bennie was diagnosed with a hypoxic brain injury and cardiac arrest because of lack of oxygen for the period of time. She was in a vegetative state for a couple of weeks. But after a month in long-term care, Moore developed an infection before dying of sepsis and cardiac arrest on Dec. 31, 2017.
Contending Trogdon and McKinney’s individual and collective negligence resulted in Moore experiencing “physical and mental pain and suffering and death,” plaintiff counsel filed a medical malpractice complaint on behalf of the decedent’s surviving spouse, Leonard Moore Jr., in November 2019.
After five days of trial, Bibb County State Court jurors returned a 13,775,000 verdict against the co-defendants. The jury assessed 82.5% fault against Trogdon and 17.5% fault against McKinney. Of the $13.7 million outcome, jurors awarded $775,000 for medical expenses, $2.5 million for Moore’s pain and suffering and $10.5 million for her wrongful death.