Following a day-and-a-half trial, a Douglas County jury awarded $2.6 million to a woman who went to the hospital in 2013 to have an infected finger examined, only to fall from a wheelchair and break a leg while there. The trial judge originally threw the case out, but it was reinstated by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Plaintiffs attorney Michael Goldberg said he thought the defense may have been overconfident in their case because of that. “There was never an offer made [to settle]. I think when summary judgment was granted the first time, they got misled and thought the case didn't have any value,” said Goldberg, who tried the case with Fried Rogers Goldberg colleague Bradley Thomas and Alpharetta solo Donald Singleton. Defendant WellStar Douglas Hospital was represented at trial by W. Curtis Anderson and Jack Slover of Marietta's Downey & Cleveland. According to Goldberg and court filings, Carolyn Byrom, now 52, went to Douglas Hospital for a preoperative evaluation for an infected middle finger on her left hand. Goldberg said Byrom weighed more than 300 pounds and walked with a cane, so a hospital staffer put her in an oversized wheelchair to take her for an EKG. They came to a doorway that was too narrow for the chair to pass through, as they were returning to the waiting room. The staffer asked Byrom if she could walk the rest of the way, and she said she thought so. Leaning on her cane with one hand and the wheelchair's arm with the other, Byrom stood up. Her right pant leg got caught on one of the chair's footrests and she fell, shattering her femur and breaking her knee. Byrom required surgery and spent three months in a rehabilitation facility. Goldberg said she was permanently affected and is now “effectively wheelchair-bound” and can only walk about 30 feet. Byrom sued the hospital in Douglas County State Court, asserting claims for negligence in failing to safely transport her, failing to have a policy for safely transporting patients in wheelchairs and for negligent hiring and supervision. The hospital admitted during discovery that it had no written policy and that the wheelchair manufacturer recommended lifting one of the armrests and exiting the chair from the side. Douglas Hospital moved for summary judgment, arguing that Byrom was essentially asserting claims for medical malpractice and that she thus should have provided an expert affidavit as required by Georgia law. The hospital also argued that, if the claims were in fact for ordinary negligence, Byrom had equal or superior knowledge of the risk of standing up with the footrests down because she had done so once before the accident. Judge Eddie Barker agreed and dismissed the case, but the Court of Appeals reversed, ruling the evidence showed there was no need for any medical training to transport Byrom in a wheelchair. The opinion also said Byrom's claims stemmed from allegations that the hospital staffer failed to follow the manufacturer's instructions. “Use of equipment that is inconsistent with the manufacturer's instructions, without more, does not constitute a medical malpractice claim,” said the appellate opinion authored by Judge Yvette Miller with the concurrence of Judges Christopher McFadden and Carla McMillian. The appeals court also said Barker had, at the “inexplicable urging of the parties,” applied the standards for premises liability to the ordinary negligence claims. “Just as not all claims against a hospital constitute medical malpractice, not all claims which arise from an injury sustained inside a building constitute premises liability, regardless of how the claim is argued by the parties,” MIller wrote. Byrom's "allegations do not implicate any condition of the premises itself, aside from the mere fact that the wheelchair was located inside the hospital at the time of her fall,” Miller said. During the trial that began Monday, Goldberg said plaintiffs witnesses included WellStar's head of risk management and a wheelchair manufacturer representative. The defense called no witnesses, he said. Byrom only appeared to testify Tuesday morning then returned home, he said. She was laid off from her accounting job six month before the accident, so there were no lost wages claims, Goldberg said. “We argued that [the accident] caused a significant change in her quality of life,” said Goldberg. “She had been unbelievably active for her size before—totally independent, driving, taking trips, taking care of her grandchild.” “[The defense] argument was that this lady had a long history of health problems before and after the accident, and they thought that was the cause of her issues. The problem for them was that our client walked into the hospital and never walked again,” Goldberg said. In closing, Goldberg said he asked the jury to award between $1.6 million and $3.3 million for “the unbelievable change in her quality of life.” Anderson asked for a straight defense verdict, he said. The jury took about two hours to award $2.5 million Wednesday for past and future pain and suffering and $165,516 in medical expenses. The jurors didn't stick around to talk, he said. “Curtis Anderson did a great job,” Goldberg said. “He just had a case that was really difficult: to convince a jury that it's OK not to follow manufacturers' guidelines in the use of hospital equipment.” "We always felt like our client did nothing wrong, and the hospital just didn't have the right policies and procedures in place to protect wheelchair patients,” he said. “It is evident from the verdict that the jury really heard Carolyn, listened to her and believed her.”