Suit Alleging Failure to Protect Surgical Patient from VTE Will Proceed

Summary judgment in favor of a hospital and physicians was reversed after a Georgia appellate court ruled that the trial court had erred in some of its rulings regarding the admissibility of expert testimony, allowing a lawsuit to proceed alleging negligence in the death of a 60-year-old woman following surgery for perforated appendicitis.

The patient was admitted to the defendant hospital with complaints of abdominal pain and was diagnosed by the defendant surgeon with perforated appendicitis and abscess formation; surgery was scheduled for the following morning. Prior to surgery, according to the surgeon's testimony, he conducted a risk assessment for...