Professional Negligence Law Reporter

A Georgia appellate court held that a plaintiff failed to prove that the alleged failure to timely administer tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) led to a stroke patient’s brain hemorrhage.

Here, Donna Harvard suffered a stroke at home and was transferred to a hospital ER. After Harvard underwent a CT scan, lab work, and an examination by an attending physician, a neurologist from a telemedicine company ordered tPA treatment, which hospital staff administered within four-and-a-half hours after Harvard’s stroke symptoms began. Nevertheless, Harvard suffered a hemorrhage and died.

Her husband, individually and on behalf of her estate, sued the telemedicine company and the hospital, alleging that delayed medical treatment deprived Harvard of a better outcome from the tPA treatment. The trial court granted the defendants summary judgment.

Affirming, the appellate court found that the plaintiffs had not raised a factual question regarding causation. The plaintiffs’ expert admitted that Harvard could have suffered a hemorrhage even if she had received the tPA within three hours of symptom onset and that she was at a higher risk for hemorrhage due to her hypertension. The expert did not opine that Harvard would not have suffered the hemorrhage had the tPA been administered more quickly, the court found, concluding that, therefore, there is no evidence to support the plaintiffs’ causation argument.

Consequently, the trial court’s ruling was proper.

Citation: Harvard v. John D. Archbold Mem’l Hosp., 2022 WL 3653147 (Ga. Ct. App. Aug. 25, 2022).