Jury Finds Piedmont Newnan Hospital Liable After Radioactive Tracer Leaked Into Patient's Arm During Stress Test

On June 1, 2011, Michael Barbour went to the emergency room at Piedmont Newnan Hospital with chest pain and trouble breathing. Doctors ordered a nuclear stress test, which uses a radioactive tracer injected through an IV catheter. The catheter had been placed in his left arm in the emergency room.

During the stress phase, while Barbour was on a treadmill, the tracer was injected and he felt sharp pain. The nurse stopped the test because the tracer appeared to have infiltrated, meaning it leaked out of the vein into the soft tissue of his arm. The arm swelled, discolored and developed a bulge, and no heart image was taken from the stress phase. The pain did not go away. It worsened over the following weeks, and he was later seen at two emergency rooms after a flare-up while playing softball.

A neurologist diagnosed complex regional pain syndrome, and an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Koman, confirmed it. Koman testified that the tracer infiltration, combined with blood escaping the vein, damaged a nerve. He performed two nerve surgeries on Barbour.

In May 2012, Barbour and his wife sued the hospital and one of the nurses involved in the test. They alleged the IV was not properly installed or checked before the tracer was given. Trial began May 5, 2014, and ran nine days. The hospital denied negligence, denied that Barbour had the syndrome, and blamed his later treatment. It also lost the digital images from the resting phase of the test when it moved facilities and the imaging vendor wiped the device's hard drive. The trial court barred the hospital from arguing that the catheter was properly placed during that phase.

The case turned on expert testimony. The hospital's expert, who had not examined Barbour, said he did not have the syndrome, then conceded in front of the jury that the left arm was a little cooler. A treating specialist examined Barbour for the jury and described the left hand as very cool, with waxy skin and discoloration. At the plaintiffs' request, the judge let jurors touch Barbour's hands, and several did.

The jury found for the individual nurse and against the hospital for $4,470,903. That total was made up of $183,244 in past medical expenses, $790,000 in future medical expenses, $51,702 in past lost wages, $1,195,957 in future lost wages, $1,000,000 in past pain and suffering, $500,000 in future pain and suffering, and $750,000 to Mrs. Barbour for loss of consortium. Lloyd Bell, Lawrence Schlachter, Angela Fox and Darren Summerville appeared for the Barbours on appeal.

On July 16, 2015, the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the jury touching, the spoliation sanction and the rest of the verdict. It reversed only the future lost wages award, because Barbour's doctor had cleared him for full-time desk work with no restrictions and his employer had kept him on at full salary. About $3,274,946 of the verdict stood.