A jury in south-central Georgia's Dodge County awarded $800,000 to a girl who developed a back injury several months after the truck she was riding in was involved in a 2012 accident.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney J. Shane Hudson of Tifton's Hudson King said the top defense offer to settle until shortly before trial was $25,000 for the injuries suffered by Kaleigh Seaver, now 11, who accrued more than $109,000 in medical bills and will need monitoring in years to come.

“We sent a policy limit demand two or three years ago that was denied. After a mediation, we sent a $215,000 demand, also denied,” he said.

“Before the trial, they sent an offer for $150,000, which we denied,” said Hudson, who tried the case with partner J.L King II.

Hudson said the defense also turned down a certified offer of settlement for $215,000 last year, which means the plaintiffs may seek some of their attorney fees. Under Georgia's offer of judgment statute, a party that declines a settlement offer and then loses at trial by at least 25 percent more than the rejected offer may be required to pay the other side's fees from the date of the offer.

Macon solo Craig Cowart, who represents defendant Xtra Tuff Trailers, said no decision has been made regarding an appeal.

“Kaleigh Seaver is a nice young lady with some difficult medical conditions,” said Cowart. “ At least two of her treating physicians did not believe these conditions were related to the automobile accident at issue.”

Cowart said his expert, Wake Forest School of Medicine Pediatric Neurosurgery director Daniel Couture, reached the same conclusion.

“The jury heard the testimony of these doctors, and appear to have discounted it,” said Cowart via email. “We are respectful of the jury's decision, and will attempt to determine what they based their decision upon, so as to understand the verdict.

“We are considering our options at this time, because we believe that some decisions made by the trial court were erroneous, and prejudicial to Xtra Tuff Trailers' defense,” Cowart said.

According to Hudson and trial briefs, the accident happened in Ben Hill County in August 2012 when an extended cab pickup truck driven by Kaleigh's father, Rusty Seaver, was hit by a truck that ran a stop sign.

Rusty and Kaleigh's brother, in the front seat, escaped serious injury, but Kaleigh, then 6, was in the back seat, “and her head snapped left and right and struck the door,” he said.

At the hospital she was diagnosed with two hemorrhages and sent to Children's Healthcare in Atlanta, where she was monitored overnight then released.

The driver of the truck, Juan Berlanga, was cited for failing to stop and failure to yield and paid the citations, Hudson said.

“Kaleigh seemed to be recovering until about eight months later, when she started having right-side headaches in the area of her bleed,” Hudson said. “A few months later, she started having tingling and numbness in her hands and feet.”

An MRI revealed a cyst, or syrinx, on Kaleigh's spinal cord, a condition known as syringomyelia.

“It's a very rare condition, and even more rare to develop it as a result of trauma, but trauma to head and spine can cause it,” Hudson said.

According to a Mayo Clinic description, syringomyelia can lead to severe, chronic pain, motor difficulties and curvature of the spine, among other complications.

Berlanga had been going to pick up a trailer for his employer, Xtra Tuff, when the accident occurred, and in 2014 Rusty Seaver sued the company in Dodge County Superior Court.

Xtra Tuff's trial brief said Berlanga had been approaching the four-way stop sign in the rain and had hydroplaned and was unable to stop, and that Seaver should have been able to avoid the collision. It also said that most of Kaleigh's injuries did not result from the accident.

During a trial that began Sept. 26 before Judge C. Michael Johnson, Hudson said the defense also challenged the timeline leading to her diagnosis.

“The symptoms started eight months after the crash months, the tingling and numbness roughly 13 months after,” he said. That sounds like a long time, but with syrinxes or cysts caused by trauma, that's actually evidence it was caused by the crash,” he said.

For the cyst to grow and begin causing symptoms, he said, the normal range is no sooner than two months and no later than 34 months.

Hudson said the plaintiff's injury causation expert was Michael Freeman of Portland, Oregon.

During closing arguments, Hudson said he asked for $5 million, while the defense recommended nothing.

On Sept. 29, he said the jury took about two hours to award $800,000. He said he and King spoke to one juror, but “we didn't learn much.”