A Richmond County jury has awarded a likely record verdict of $35 million in a medical malpractice case involving the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
The jury ordered the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to pay the amount in damages to the parents of 3-year-old Bryson Warren, who died in 2016 after spending about three weeks in the children’s hospital.
Parents Bryce Warren and April Bradshaw were represented by lawyers with Frails and Wilson of Augusta and Childers, Schlueter and Smith of Atlanta. Neil Edwards of the Atlanta firm specializes in Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, or SJS, and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis.
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Warren and Bradshaw brought their son from their home in Colquitt County, Ga., to the children’s hospital for treatment of a mass in his abdomen, which was diagnosed as Burkitt lymphoma. According to the complaint, a resident at the hospital repeatedly administered the boy allopurinol, a drug known to cause serious allergic reactions in some patients.
“At the time it was well-known in the medical community that allopurinol should be discontinued at the first sign of skin rash or other signs that may indicate an allergic reaction,” it said.
The doctor of osteopathy resident, his supervising physician and a half-dozen other faculty doctors and pharmacists repeatedly noted the boy’s skin was “sloughing off,” a symptom of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. The syndrome is a rare disease of the skin and mucous membranes typically caused by a drug interaction. But despite documenting the symptoms, they continued to approve use of the drug and did not consult with a specialist, it said.
The boy’s parents initially sued Colquitt Regional Medical Center and doctors and other personnel who had treated him there and at the children’s hospital. But by the trial last week, all defendants had settled or been dropped except for the board of regents, which oversees operations at the hospital.
After giving the drug daily for about nine days, nearly 30% of the boy’s skin had sloughed away, the complaint said. On July 12, 2016, another doctor got a dermatological consult, which immediately diagnosed SJS and stopped the allopurinol, but the child died the next day.
The Richmond County State Court jury awarded $10 million for the Bryson Warren’s pain and suffering, $22 million for the full value of his life and $5 million for the emotional distress of the boy’s parents.
Tort reform advocates call the large verdicts “nuclear” and say state courts in Georgia have seen 39 verdicts of $10 million or more in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits since 2018. It’s the latest large award against a state entity.
The state settled for $40 million in November a lawsuit filed by the family of two women killed and severely injured when an interstate guard rail was left unprepared for at least 10 months.
The regents are likely to appeal the $35 million verdict, but hadn’t done so as of Monday.
