Court Opinion

ID: 9584734
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:52:12.80924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:39.666716
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent as it is my view that the trial court erred in dismissing Robinson’s complaint for failure to file an expert affidavit (pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-9.1) and granting summary judgment with regard to Robinson’s claim of ordinary negligence.
In my view, there is critical proof that at least one Central Georgia employee (a nurse) was aware that Robinson is “legally blind” and that Robinson was suffering from severe abdominal pain (presumably so severe that it required hospitalization) at the time he was left unattended in an unsecured hospital bed. I believe that this proof raises genuine issues of material fact as to whether Central Georgia’s employees exercised ordinary care (not professional malpractice) in “watching over” Robinson at the time of the patient’s fall. Further, the circumstances of the case sub judice present issues which are indistinguishable from the issues resolved in this court’s whole court *11decision in Smith v. North Fulton Med. Center, 200 Ga. App. 464, 465 (1) (408 SE2d 468). Just as in North Fulton, I believe the allegations of Robinson’s complaint and the evidence he offered on summary judgment exclude the necessity of expert testimony to resolve the issue of whether Central Georgia breached its duty to exercise ordinary care in protecting Robinson from injury which was reasonably foreseeable because of the patient’s impaired physical condition. In fact, under indistinguishable circumstances, this court sustained a verdict in favor of an elderly patient in Hosp. Auth. of Hall County v. Shubert, 96 Ga. App. 222, 225 (2) (99 SE2d 708), who fell out of bed and charged the hospital with ordinary negligence (not professional malpractice) for failing to place sideboards on her bed or otherwise keep watch over her so as to prevent the foreseeable result of her infirm condition, i.e., thrashing out of her hospital bed.
Decided March 9, 1995
Reconsideration denied March 28, 1995
J. O’Quinn Lindsey, for appellant.
Sell & Melton, Joseph W. Popper, Jr., Michelle W, Johnson, for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Pope and Judge Ruffin join in this dissent.