Columbus Hospital Held Liable For $26 Million After Missed Neck Hematoma Leaves Patient Blind
After trial: St. Francis Hospital waived its right to appeal and paid promptly rather than challenging the verdict, in exchange for Williams withdrawing a pending motion for additional attorney's fees. No appeal was filed and no court reduced the $26 million award. Published accounts differ on the exact sum the hospital paid under that post-verdict agreement, so we do not state a payment figure. Dr. Erik Westerlund, the on-call physician whose treatment was at issue, had already settled out of the case before trial on undisclosed terms and was not part of the final judgment against the hospital.
Won by Bell Law Firm.
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.
What happened
On October 20, 2012, Sandra Williams, a 53-year-old administrative assistant in Columbus, Georgia, went to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital three days after a neck fusion surgery. She was struggling to breathe and swallow, her throat hurt, and her neck had swollen badly.
Williams had developed a post-operative hematoma, a collection of blood pressing against her trachea. According to the trial record, hospital staff, including on-call physician Dr. Erik Westerlund, did not evaluate and treat her quickly enough to relieve the hematoma before her airway narrowed further. By the time doctors attempted to intubate her, hours after she arrived, the attempt itself set off a respiratory collapse that cut off oxygen to her brain.
The oxygen deprivation left Williams blind and brain damaged. She uses a wheelchair, has little function in her legs, has difficulty grasping with her hands, and needs round-the-clock care. Her husband, Phillip Williams, had joined the lawsuit with a loss of consortium claim, but he died of cancer before the case reached trial and that claim was dismissed.
The case went to trial before Judge Benjamin Richardson in Muscogee County State Court, running from November 28 to December 11, 2017 and ending with more than eight hours of jury deliberation. Williams was represented by Lloyd Bell of the Bell Law Firm, joined by co-counsel Darren Summerville and Lawrence Schlachter. Pulmonologist Dr. Christopher Tidwell, who had also treated Williams, and the hospital's nursing staff were cleared of wrongdoing at trial. Westerlund had already settled out of the case before trial on undisclosed terms, leaving the jury to decide whether St. Francis Hospital was liable for his conduct toward Williams.
On December 11, 2017, the jury returned a verdict of $26 million against St. Francis Hospital, finding the hospital fully responsible for Westerlund's failure to treat Williams' hematoma in time to prevent her injuries.
After the verdict, St. Francis Hospital agreed to waive its right to appeal and pay, in exchange for Williams dropping a pending motion seeking additional attorney's fees. No appeal was filed and no court reduced the award, so the $26 million verdict stood as rendered.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Courtroom View Network, Dec 2017: verdict amount and date, Muscogee County State Court venue, case number SC14CV882, plaintiff and defense counsel of record, the clearing of Dr. Tidwell and the nursing staff, and the hospital's agreement to waive appeal and pay
- 2.VerdictSearch (Law.com): case caption, judge, date of incident, plaintiff's age and occupation, allocation of fault to St. Francis Hospital for Dr. Westerlund's negligence, Dr. Westerlund's pretrial settlement on undisclosed terms, dismissal of the husband's consortium claim, plaintiff and defense counsel of record, and the December 11, 2017 verdict date
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