Case Name: DICKERSON v. HULSEY
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1976-02-19
Citations: 138 Ga. App. 108
Docket Number: 51377
Parties: DICKERSON v. HULSEY.
Judges: Bell, C. J., Clark and Marshall, JJ., concur. Deen, P. J., concurs specially. Evans and Webb, JJ., dissent. Pannell, P. J., and Quillian, J., concur in the result of the dissent.
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 138
Pages: 108–114

Head Matter:
51377.
DICKERSON v. HULSEY.

Opinion:
Stolz, Judge.
The plaintiffs malpractice suit alleges that she was admitted to a hospital with an injury to the lumbosacral area; that her attending physician, defendant Dr. Hulsey, performed a Dilation and Curettage (D & C) operation on her pursuant to a special consent, which was void because it was signed by her while she was heavily sedated and not in complete control of her faculties; that, due to the negligence of the defendant in failing to exercise the reasonable degree of care and skill required by members of the medical profession in performing the operation, the defendant perforated the plaintiffs uterine (uterus?), necessitating subsequent corrective surgery by a Dr. Weems. The complaint sought general and special damages.
The defendant filed an answer, alleging the plaintiffs consent to the operation and denying his negligence therein, and moved for summary judgment.
It appeared from the deposition of the plaintiff and Dr. Weems that the plaintiff had had at least two D & C operations that she could remember prior to the one performed by the defendant, one by Dr. Weems and another by a Dr. Manning. These were necessitated by abnormal uterine bleeding due to endometritis (an infection or inflammation of the uterus lining). The defendant deposed that, among other symptoms, the plaintiff was suffering from heavy, frequent bleeding when she consulted him; and that, in the course of the operation, he noticed a loss of tension on the curette (instrument used to scrape the inside lining of the uterus), removed it and immediately called in Dr. Weems for consultation. Dr. Weems deposed that he then performed a laparotomy (exploratory operation), revealing a perforation of the uterus, which was repaired by suturing; that the perforation stops bleeding when it is repaired; that the plaintiff's further incidents of abnormal bleeding after her discharge from the hospital would have been the result of a continuation of the endometritis and not the perforation; that the defendant exercised the degree of care and skill employed by the medical profession generally in his treatment of the patient and performance of the operation; and that it is not uncommon for the uterus to become perforated during a D & C, in even the best of skillful hands and techniques.
Argued October 29, 1975
Decided February 19, 1976
Rehearing denied March 12, 1976
The plaintiff appeals from the grant of the defendant's motion for summary judgment. Held:
The defendant movant for summary judgment, by his own medical testimony and that of Dr. Weems, positively showed facts from which the only inference reasonably to be drawn supports the initial presumption that a proper degree of care and skill was used, thus meeting the requirement that on medical questions the proper standard of measurement must be established by the testimony of medical experts. The plaintiff having failed to support her contention of negligence with any evidence,
opinion or otherwise, it was not error to grant the defendant's motion for summary judgment. See Anderson v. Crippen, 122 Ga. App. 27 (176 SE2d 196) and cits. Cf., Heath v. Steverson, 123 Ga. App. 740 (182 SE2d 323); McGlamry v. Smallwood, 124 Ga. App. 401 (184 SE2d 52); Rushing v. Ellis, 124 Ga. App. 621 (184 SE2d 667); Hogan v. Almand, 131 Ga. App. 225 (205 SE2d 440).
Judgment affirmed.
Bell, C. J., Clark and Marshall, JJ., concur. Deen, P. J., concurs specially. Evans and Webb, JJ., dissent. Pannell, P. J., and Quillian, J., concur in the result of the dissent.
Harmon & Wells, James H. Harmon, Carl A. Veline, Jr., for appellant.
Jones, Cork, Miller & Benton, E. Bruce Benton, for appellee.