Georgia Post-Operative Bleeding and Hematoma Delay Allegations

Overview

The examples below are a narrow group of public Georgia complaint allegations involving post-operative or post-procedure hematoma, bleeding, compression, or delayed emergency response. The category is intentionally specific, and each example should be read as an allegation rather than a finding about the care provided.

Related case summaries

Full case summaries

Read the linked case summary for the fuller allegations-only discussion.

Piedmont Augusta complaint alleges delayed response to post-thyroidectomy neck hematoma

This page concerns a thyroidectomy case at Piedmont Augusta Hospital in which a known risk of post-operative neck bleeding allegedly was not met with the immediate response required when a hematoma can compress the windpipe and suffocate the patient within minutes.

Provider grouping: Piedmont Healthcare
Care setting: Piedmont Augusta Hospital
Providers involved: Piedmont Augusta Hospital / Hospital staff
Alleged pattern: Post-thyroidectomy neck hematoma allegedly followed by delayed emergency response
Claimed harm: profound brain injury and death

Piedmont HealthcarePost-operative hematomaENT surgery Read the case summary

Spinal epidural hematoma allegedly not recognized in the ICU at Emory University Hospital

This page concerns an ICU case at Emory University Hospital in which bleeding signs and worsening neurological deficits after a thrombectomy allegedly were not properly monitored or recognized as a spinal epidural hematoma until the next day, after severe spinal cord compression had developed.

Provider grouping: Emory Healthcare
Care setting: Emory University Hospital
Providers involved: Emory University Hospital / Dr. Olamide Alabi / Intensive care unit providers
Alleged pattern: Post-thrombectomy ICU bleeding and neurological deficits followed by delayed recognition of spinal epidural hematoma
Claimed harm: Severe and permanent neurological injuries

Emory HealthcareSpinal epidural hematomaVascular surgery Read the case summary

Post-thyroidectomy neck hematoma allegedly not relieved in time at St. Mary’s

This page concerns a routine thyroidectomy followed by a rapidly expanding neck hematoma in the hospital, where an airway-threatening emergency allegedly was not relieved in time even after the on-call ENT surgeon instructed that the neck sutures be cut to release pressure on the windpipe.

Provider grouping: St. Mary’s Health Care System
Care setting: St. Mary’s Health Care System
Providers involved: St. Mary’s Health Care System, Inc. / On-call ENT surgeon / Emergency department physician / Nurse
Alleged pattern: Rapidly expanding post-thyroidectomy neck hematoma followed by delay in cutting sutures to relieve airway pressure
Claimed harm: Profound brain injury and death

St. Mary’s Health Care SystemPost-operative hematomaENT surgery Read the case summary

Related healthcare providers

Emory Healthcare 1 case summary Piedmont 1 case summary

Related Georgia opinions

Related Georgia Opinions

Georgia Court of Appeals affirms defense verdict and ER gross-negligence jury instructions. The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a defense verdict in an emergency-room malpractice case, holding that OCGA 51-1-4's definition of gross negligence applies under the ER statute and that the jury instructions properly required proof of gross negligence in at least one alleged way. Georgia Court of Appeals affirms defense verdict despite co-defendant settlement evidence The Court of Appeals affirmed a defense verdict for Eastside Medical Center, holding that any error in admitting a co-defendant doctor's settlement was harmless because the record and special verdict form showed no hospital liability. Supreme Court of Georgia: the medical malpractice damages cap cannot touch a verdict that also includes pain-and-suffering damages a jury was entitled to award. Reaffirming Nestlehutt under stare decisis, the Supreme Court held that OCGA § 51-13-1's $350,000 noneconomic damages cap cannot be applied at all to a verdict that includes constitutionally protected noneconomic damages — here, the estate's pre-death pain and suffering. Because the statute lumps every claimant's noneconomic damages into one capped sum and offers no way to carve a verdict apart, the Court vacated an order that had cut a $29,250,000 wrongful death award to $350,000. It expressly reserved whether the cap could reach a stand-alone wrongful death award.