A DeKalb County jury awarded $6 million to the husband and estate of an elderly woman who died of an intestinal blockage several days after an unrelated surgery.

The jury allocated all of the liability to the doctor who treated the woman after she was hospitalized for gastrointestinal distress, clearing a co-defendant emergency room doctor of blame.

Plaintif's attorney Cale Conley said his team didn't shy away from raising the issue of 72-year-old Ann Scoggins' age.

“We did not put up any economic evidence; we focused on the value of her life,” said Conley. “She had a very rich family life, a loving husband, very active in the American Cancer Society, the Georgia Museum of Art [and] her church in Athens.”

“We highlighted the more than a decade a left to her statistically, if not more. We said, 'They call them the golden years for a reason,'” said Conley, who tried the case with Conley Griggs Partin senior associate Will Owens and William Bird and Paul Hotchkiss of the Bird Law Group.

The defendant blamed by the jury, Dr. Daniel Moldoveanu, was represented by James Brim III and Elizabeth Latta of Gainesville's Forrester & Brim.

“Our hearts go out to the patient's family for their loss,” said Brim. “However, we respectfully disagree with the jury's verdict and strongly believe the patient received appropriate medical care.”

The ER doctor, Elizabeth Smith, was represented by Robert Monyak and Melissa Johnson of Peters & Monyak.

“We're obviously pleased we're obviously pleased with results and think the jury reached the right decision with regard to Dr. Smith,” Monyak said.

According to Conley and court filings, Scoggins underwent a knee replacement at Athens' St. Mary's Hospital in January 2014. The surgery went well, and she was released home a couple of days later.

Nine days after the operation, Scoggins went back to St. Mary's, complaining to Smith of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and constipation.

At the ER, Smith ordered an X-ray and diagnosed Scoggins with constipation, likely due to the narcotic painkillers she had been taking for post-surgery pain. Smith arranged two enemas, prescribed medication to help relieve the narcotics' effects and discharged her.

The next day, Scoggins went to her primary care doctor complaining of discomfort, bloating and shortness of breath. He noted that her abdomen was distended and had her directly admitted to Athens Regional Medical Center.

Moldoveanu, a hospitalist, ordered a series of X-rays, which indicated a small bowel obstruction or ileus, and advised a series of enemas to relive her constipation.

Not long after receiving an enema, Scoggins went to the bathroom, where she vomited liquid containing fecal matter. She aspirated some of the fluid into her lungs and went into cardiac arrest; she was taken to the intensive care unit but never regained consciousness and died the next morning.

In 2015, Scoggins' husband and executor, John Scoggins, filed a negligence suit against Moldoveanu and his practice, Athens Regional Specialty Services, and Smith and her employer, Athens-Clarke Emergency Specialists, in DeKalb County State Court.

Smith was not sued under Georgia's “gross negligence” standard for emergency health providers, Conley said, since all parties agreed Scoggins' was not emergency treatment.

Conley said there were no significant settlement discussions and no mediation, and the case went to trial Sept. 25 before Judge Johnny Panos.

The plaintiff's side argued that the test Moldoveanu conducted should have alerted him that Scoggins' intestinal blockage required a nasogastric tube to relieve the pressure on her stomach and that he should have ordered a CT scan.

Smith was accused of prematurely discharging Scoggins from the ER without confirming and treating her bowel obstruction, the plaintiff's portion of the pretrial order said.

Conley said the defense lawyers “were not pointing fingers at each other. Dr. Moldoveanu affirmatively said Dr. Smith did nothing wrong. Smith did not make a corollary statement; she didn't blame or not blame Moldoveanu.”

Conley said key testimony for his side came from ER specialist Richard Serra from Duke University and hospitalist Hugo Cheng of the University of California at San Francisco.

The defense called ER specialist Dag Shapshak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he said, and hospitalist Vaughn Clagette from Carrollton, Georgia.

In closing, Conley said Bird asked the jury to award $550,000 in pain and suffering, and Conley suggested an award of $2.5 million to $7.5 million for the value of Scoggins' life.

On Oct. 2, the jury took about one hour and 45 minutes to award $6 million, including $5.5 million for Scoggins' life.

Conley said he appreciated the opportunity to work with Bird.

“I've known and respected him for years,” Conley said. “To try a case against such stellar lawyers with a great judge like Johnny Panos is something I'll remember a long time.”

After the trial, Brim said he made an oral motion to transfer the case to Cobb or Athens-Clarke county under Georgia's “vanishing venue” statute.

That statute, O.C.G.A. § 9-10-31(d), says that, in a multidefendant case, if all of the resident defendants in the county where the case is pending are dismissed from the case before or upon a verdict, “a nonresident defendant may require that the case be transferred to a county and court in which venue would otherwise be proper.”

Brim said Panos asked both sides to brief the issue. Conley said his team will oppose the request.

“Our view is that the verdict against Dr. Moldoveanu is not affected,” he said.