Professional Negligence Law Reporter

A Georgia appellate court held that a gross negligence standard applied to a health care worker who provided emergency medical care to an obstetrics patient whose baby experienced shoulder dystocia during delivery.

Kimberly Brown was admitted to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital to deliver her child. After Brown went into a spontaneous vaginal delivery and her baby’s head was delivered, shoulder dystocia was encountered. Certified nurse midwife Peggy Register, who had been paged before Brown’s spontaneous delivery, performed shoulder dystocia alleviation procedures, including the McRoberts maneuver and application of suprapubic pressure. Register also applied lateral traction. Brown’s baby was born with a broken clavicle and suffered a permanent right brachial plexus injury.

Suit against Register and an obstetrics practice alleged liability for the baby’s birth injuries. The plaintiffs alleged that the child’s injuries resulted from Register’s application of excessive traction during the 40 seconds after the shoulder dystocia was encountered. The defense moved for partial summary judgment regarding the applicable standard of care, arguing that the heightened gross negligence standard outlined in Ga. Code Ann. §51-1-29.5 applied to the plaintiffs’ claims. The trial court denied the motion.

Reversing, the appellate court noted that in enacting §51-1-29.5, the legislature reduced the standard of care in cases involving certain categories of emergency medical care. Under the statute, the court said, health care liability claims require a showing of gross negligence in cases arising out of the provision of emergency medical care in a hospital emergency department, obstetrics unit, or a surgical suite immediately following a patient’s evaluation or treatment in the emergency room. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that prior emergency room treatment is required in cases arising out of emergency obstetrical care. Such an interpretation would lead to the absurd result that the statute’s heightened standard applied only to patients who were first treated in an emergency room, the court said.

Here, the court found, the treatment at issue occurred in an obstetrical unit and involved shoulder dystocia—a medical emergency according to the plaintiff’s experts. Consequently, because Register had provided emergency medical care to alleviate shoulder dystocia, §51-1-29.5’s gross negligence standard applied, and the defense was entitled to summary judgment on that issue.

Citation: Ob-gyn Assocs., P.A. v. Brown, 849 S.E.2d 257 (Ga. Ct. App. 2020).