Brook Ptacek West

A Fulton County State Court jury awarded $75 million to Jonathan Buckelew, who suffered a brain stem stroke after a chiropractic neck adjustment at age 32 and was left with locked-in syndrome when an emergency physician and a radiologist failed to diagnose it for a full day. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in March 2025.

A Fulton County jury found dermatologist Joseph Payne and his practice liable for missing a recurrence of skin cancer in Tony Waldrop, a Vietnam veteran, after Payne discarded tissue from a 2013 lesion without ordering a biopsy. The cancer went undiagnosed for roughly eight months and required extensive facial surgery that left Waldrop permanently disfigured. In December 2025, on the case's third trial, the jury awarded $32 million to Waldrop's estate and $16 million to his widow, for a combined $48 million. State Court Judge Eric Richardson added $8.8 million in pre-judgment interest, bringing the total judgment to $56.8 million. Waldrop died in 2022, before the case reached its final resolution.

Sandra Williams, a 53-year-old Columbus, Georgia administrative assistant, went to St. Francis Hospital's emergency room three days after neck surgery with breathing and swallowing trouble caused by a hematoma pressing on her trachea. Hospital staff, including on-call physician Erik Westerlund, delayed treating the hematoma, and a subsequent intubation attempt triggered a respiratory collapse that left her blind, brain damaged and dependent on caregivers. A Muscogee County State Court jury cleared the treating pulmonologist and hospital nurses but found St. Francis Hospital fully liable for Westerlund's negligence, awarding Williams $26 million on December 11, 2017. The hospital then agreed to waive any appeal and pay rather than challenge the verdict.

Cris Nelson lost consciousness during a routine blood draw at an Emory Healthcare clinic in 2012 and fell from the exam table where he had been seated without support, breaking his neck and leaving him a quadriplegic. Emory Healthcare admitted liability for the fall before trial, so the case that went before a DeKalb County jury in spring 2016 was limited to the value of the injury. On May 3, 2016, the jury awarded $15 million: $12 million to Nelson and $3 million to his wife, Deborah, for loss of consortium. No appeal turned up in any source reviewed.

Byung 'Ben' Oh, a retired U.S. Army veteran, fell from a ladder in April 2018 and underwent spine surgery days later. He developed a lymphatic fluid leak that a radiologist worsened with an improperly placed catheter, and his attending physician failed to investigate the ongoing fluid loss as his condition deteriorated. Oh was 77 when he died of septic shock and organ failure on July 21, 2018. A Fulton County jury found the attending physician and her employer 67.5 percent at fault and the radiologist and his practice 32.5 percent at fault, awarding Oh's wife and daughter $15 million on August 4, 2026, and clearing two other treating physicians named in the suit.