Houston County Jury Awards $6 Million After Headland Woman Dies of Sepsis Following Gallbladder Surgery
After trial: We found no post-trial motion ruling or appeal in public records, and defense counsel had not commented when the verdict was reported. Whether the judgment has been paid is not public.
Won by Hare Wynn Newell & Newton.
A Houston County, Alabama jury awarded $6 million on September 17, 2024, to the family of Christa Anne Davis, 71, of Headland, who died of sepsis in September 2017 after gallbladder surgery. The family said a surgeon at the practice, filling in for her own surgeon, sent her home without checking her vital signs. The five-day trial was reported as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Houston County history.
What happened
A Houston County, Alabama jury returned a $6 million verdict on September 17, 2024, for the family of Christa Anne Davis, a 71-year-old Headland woman who died of sepsis in September 2017 after gallbladder surgery. The defendants were Dothan surgeon Dr. Bradley T. Marker and his practice, Wiregrass Surgical. Local coverage described it as the largest medical malpractice verdict on record in Houston County.
Davis had the surgery at Wiregrass Surgical in Dothan. Back at home, she had severe stomach pain that her prescribed medication did not relieve. Her husband, Billy Davis, called the surgical clinic, and he was told the pain was to be expected. On September 22, 2017, with her own surgeon out of town, Dr. Marker saw her, told the couple her symptoms were normal and sent her home with a different pain medication.
Her condition worsened that evening. Billy Davis called for emergency help, and an ambulance took her to the emergency room at about 2:37 a.m. on September 23. Dr. Marker met her there and found her abdomen full of bile. She died within hours from sepsis.
The family's lawsuit said Dr. Marker was negligent in his follow-up care and did not check her vital signs when he sent her home. Her daughter, Betsy Davis Swihart, summed up the family's view after the verdict: 'She was pretty much dismissed and sent back home and died that night.'
The case went to trial in Houston County Circuit Court in Dothan and lasted five days, with several expert witnesses testifying. One point of dispute concerned the doctor's own chart. After he saw Davis on a ventilator, the family's lawyers said, Dr. Marker dictated a note stating that he had told her to go to the hospital that morning and that she had declined. The lawyers argued that he had not in fact advised hospitalization when he examined her.
The family was represented by D. Leon Ashford, managing partner of Hare Wynn Newell & Newton in Birmingham, and Ashley Reitz Peinhardt. Ashford told reporters the jurors believed Davis 'should have had different care, and that care should come to those who come behind her.' The jury awarded $6 million against Dr. Marker and Wiregrass Surgical.
Dr. Marker's lawyers did not respond to requests for comment when the verdict was reported.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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