One of the biggest wins for Harris Lowry Manton in 2018 was an $18 million verdict for a Savannah woman who became paralyzed after being hospitalized for infection. The jury ruled for client Joan Simmons, who was 58 and had worked full-time as an accountant for Colonial Oil Group in Savannah before she became ill and went to the hospital in July 2014, according to court records.

Simmons first went to the emergency room on July 20, 2014, for acute back pain. She was treated and released, according to the plaintiff’s summary in the consolidated pretrial order. She went back to the ER 10 days later, suffering from an altered mental state. She was found to have a bloodstream infection. On Aug. 5, an MRI revealed an extensive infection and abscess in her spine, according to her lawyers. She underwent decompression surgery on Aug. 6. She was discharged Sept. 11—paralyzed. Her lawyers alleged the hospital staff failed to diagnose the abscess in time to help her.