Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Dona Sorenson, 68, presented to the Piedmont Hospital ER with a persistent cough. She was admitted to the hospital and transferred to intensive care five days later. There, she had a feeding tube inserted for parenteral feedings. The tube was later removed, but it was reinserted two days later. Sorenson’s respiratory function continued to deteriorate, and imaging later revealed that the feeding tube had been misplaced into her left lung, causing pleural effusion.

Sorenson later underwent an emergency bronchoscopy, during which she suffered shock and cardiac arrest. She died less than a week later.

Sorenson’s estate sued Piedmont Hospital, Inc., radiologist Louis Jacobs, and his employer, alleging medical negligence. The plaintiff asserted that a hospital nurse had negligently placed the feeding tube into Sorenson’s left lung and failed to conform to hospital policies requiring providers to document the size of the feeding tube and confirm placement by at least two methods. Suit also claimed that Jacobs had misread an X-ray as showing the feeding tube terminating in Sorenson’s stomach and failed to compare the film to previous imaging.

Finally, the plaintiff alleged the hospital’s nurses and therapists had failed to stop tube feeds in light of Sorenson’s worsening condition, remove the feeding tube in light of her respiratory distress, and timely report her clinical deterioration to the attending physician shortly before the bronchoscopy.

The jury awarded $10.6 million, apportioning liability at 68% to Jacobs and 32% to the hospital.

Citation: Sorenson v. Piedmont Hosp., Inc., No. 20EV005574 (Ga. St. Ct. Fulton Cnty. Nov. 15, 2023).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Mark D. Meliski, Roy E. Barnes, and John R. Bartholomew, all of Marietta, Ga.