VALDOSTA — A jury cleared two medical practitioners and their employer Wednesday in a lawsuit claiming a child was left disabled due to negligence.
The jury in Lowndes County Superior Court returned a verdict clearing Dr. Wilfredo Rios, Physician’s Assistant Bryan Shiver and Emergency Medicine South Wednesday afternoon.
The plaintiff, Patreace Brinson, mother of 10-year-old Kurrenci Moore, sued for $10 million in damages.
On Sept. 24, 2008, an ill Kurrenci, then 3 months old, was brought to the emergency room at South Georgia Medical Center, according to the lawsuit.
The child was discharged with a prescription without having seen a physician and without any blood tests being taken, the lawsuit claimed.
Still ill, Brinson took Kurrrenci back to the hospital three days later, and was told the next day the child needed to be brought back to SGMC immediately, the lawsuit says. Brinson was already en route to the hospital because the child had suffered a seizure, according to the lawsuit.
He was eventually transferred to the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and suffered “seizures, brain infarction and permanent brain injury,” according to the lawsuit.
Wednesday, Jim Messer, attorney for the plaintiffs, told the jury Brinson and Kurrenci “got misinformation, medicine for the symptoms but not for the infection,” then were “cast out.”
“Don’t cast out Kurrenci,” he asked the jurors.
After deliberating for about three hours, jurors found in favor of Rios, Shiver and Emergency Medicine South.
“We couldn’t find a case that the doctors had been negligent,” said Laila Taylor, jury foreperson, after the trial.
Defense attorney Michael Frankson said his clients were relieved.
“It’s been a very long road,” he said.
Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.
(Full Article: https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/medical-practitioners-cleared-in-lawsuit/article_47864ff4-765c-5ae8-a6e7-4837ec08cef3.html)
