$75 Million Verdict for Man Left Locked In After ER and Radiology Missed His Brain Stem Stroke
After trial: Affirmed by the Georgia Court of Appeals on March 10, 2025. The verdict stands.
Won by Shamp Silk (lead counsel) and Bell Law Firm (co-counsel).
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.
What happened
On October 26, 2015, Jonathan Buckelew collapsed during a chiropractic neck adjustment. He was 32. An ambulance brought him to the emergency department at North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, arriving around 4:20 in the afternoon with seizure-like symptoms.
Imaging performed soon after he arrived contained evidence that Buckelew was suffering a brain stem stroke. The diagnosis did not come that day. At trial, his lawyers argued that emergency physician Dr. Matthew Womack failed to pass critical information, including the chiropractic history and CT findings, to the on-call neurologist, and that radiologist Dr. James Waldschmidt failed in his reading of the imaging. The stroke was not diagnosed until the following day. By then the window for intervention had closed. Buckelew was left with locked-in syndrome. His mind is intact, but he cannot move any part of his body except his eyes.
His family sued in Fulton County State Court, case 17EV004146, naming the emergency physician, the radiologist, a neurologist, a physician assistant, hospital nursing staff, and others. Because much of the care occurred in an emergency department, Georgia law required the jury to find gross negligence, a heavier burden than an ordinary malpractice claim carries.
The case was tried for three weeks in October 2022. Laura Shamp of Shamp Silk LLC served as lead counsel, with Lloyd Bell of Bell Law Firm trying the case alongside her as co-counsel. In closing arguments, Shamp told the jury that miscommunication and violations of hospital rules caused the delays in diagnosing and treating the stroke, and Bell argued that the expert testimony showed time was of the essence, with earlier treatment offering the chance of a better result.
The jury returned a verdict of $75 million: $9 million in past medical expenses, $20 million in future medical expenses, and $46 million for past and future pain and suffering. It apportioned 60 percent of the fault to Dr. Womack and 40 percent to Dr. Waldschmidt, and it cleared the other defendants, including the neurologist, the physician assistant, and the ICU nursing staff.
Dr. Womack appealed. On March 10, 2025, the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in consolidated appeals A24A1463 and A24A1642. The court rejected his argument that he was entitled to a directed verdict, holding that expert testimony supported the finding that his conduct grossly departed from the standard of care, and it found no reversible error in the trial rulings he challenged, including the use of podcast statements to impeach a defense expert. The $75 million verdict stands.
Buckelew has lived with locked-in syndrome since October 2015. He communicates with his eyes.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Courtroom View Network: $75M verdict in med mal trial over stroke that profoundly paralyzed patient·Archived copy
- 2.Buckelew v. Womack, Georgia Court of Appeals opinion, March 10, 2025 (via FindLaw)·Archived copy
- 3.Firm announcement (Bell Law Firm): Shamp Silk and Bell Law Firm secure $75M in locked-in syndrome case·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Shamp Silk
All Shamp Silk proven verdicts →A Bibb County jury awarded $33,465,176 in July 2024 after finding that physicians affiliated with an OB-GYN practice in Macon, Georgia failed to diagnose and treat a bowel perforation that occurred during April Clark's May 2019 ovarian cyst surgery, a failure the family said led to her death that June. The trial court later cut the wrongful death portion of the verdict from $29,250,000 to $350,000 under Georgia's medical malpractice damages cap. On June 16, 2026, the Georgia Supreme Court vacated that reduction, holding the cap cannot apply to a verdict that includes pain and suffering damages protected by the state's constitutional right to a jury trial, which restored the verdict to its full $33,465,176. The Court also sent the case back to the trial court to decide one argument from the defendants' motion for a new trial that the trial court had never reached, so the case is not over.
A Duval County, Florida jury awarded longtime smoker Elaine Jordan $11 million in August 2015, finding that Philip Morris USA concealed the dangers and addictive nature of cigarettes and that the resulting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease led to her two lung transplants and a later kidney transplant. The verdict included $7,795,000 in compensatory damages and $3,205,000 in punitive damages. Jurors also found Philip Morris 60 percent at fault and Jordan 40 percent at fault. Philip Morris appealed and lost at every stage: Florida's First District Court of Appeal affirmed in April 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied review in February 2019, and a later appeal of the attorney fee award Jordan won failed as well. The $11 million stands as rendered in 2015.
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