Lloyd Bell

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.

In November 2014 a Fulton County State Court jury awarded Linda Bullard $6 million against Macon pawn shop owner Ronald Richardson, who sold and then mishandled the pistol that killed her 14-year-old son. The judge separately entered a $2.2 million default judgment against Bruce Jennings, owner of the now-defunct maker Bryco Arms, who did not appear at trial. Together the two awards total $8.2 million.

Ronald Yarbrough, a 64-year-old Air Force veteran from Gwinnett County, died in July 2019 after a heart attack that followed elective colon surgery. His widow, Glenda Yarbrough, sued the cardiology practice that had been managing his heart care, alleging its letter told him a CT calcium scan showed no significant calcification when the scan had in fact found heavy plaque in a critical coronary artery, and the case also went to trial against the surgeon who operated without a cardiac workup. A Gwinnett County jury awarded $18.3 million in July 2025, apportioning 70 percent of the fault to the cardiologist's practice and 30 percent to the surgeon's clinic, but the trial judge later vacated that verdict and ordered a new trial. Rather than retry the case, the cardiology practice settled with Yarbrough's widow for $6 million in June 2026, and the surgeon's clinic resolved its part of the case separately and confidentially.

A Fulton County jury found Piedmont Newnan Hospital liable after a radioactive tracer leaked from an IV into Michael Barbour's arm during a nuclear stress test, leaving him with complex regional pain syndrome. The verdict totaled $4,470,903, including $750,000 for his wife's loss of consortium. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed liability and upheld the rest, but reversed the future lost wages award, so about $3.27 million stood.

In May 2023 a Fulton County State Court jury found Village Podiatry Group, LLC liable for a nerve injury suffered by Christine Perron during surgery to repair a broken ankle, and awarded her $4 million. The award was reduced to $3 million by a $1 million offset for a prior settlement under a separate policy covering the surgeon. Perron developed complex regional pain syndrome, a chronic pain condition.

Connie Lockhart lost her leg below the knee in March 2012 after a femoral catheter was placed in an artery instead of a vein at a Cherokee County hospital. In January 2019 a Fulton County State Court jury returned a $4.7 million verdict, assigning 27 percent of the fault to the physician who oversaw her care, 3 percent to Lockhart and 70 percent to nonparties. That physician then settled for $1 million, a policy-limits recovery.