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Hankla v. Postell

The trial court reversibly erred in allowing a medical doctor to testify as an expert witness as to the standard of care for a nurse midwife when the doctor had not supervised, taught or instructed nurse midwives during the requisite time period.

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We granted certiorari in this medical malpractice action to determine whether Georgia’s expert witness statute permits a physician to testify as to the standard of care applicable to a nurse midwife, where the physician regularly renders the medical treatment at issue in the case but has not supervised nurse midwives in the rendering of such treatment in accordance with the statute’s requirements. See OCGA § 24-7-702 c 2013.1 Construing the statutory language in light of the legislative purposes behind the law’s enactment, we conclude that the statute does not permit such testimony, even where a physician satisfies the “active practice” requirement of OCGA § 24-7-702 c 2 A. Thus, we now hold that, to be qualified to give expert medical testimony, a physician or other health care provider, regardless of her experience in “active practice,” must satisfy either the “same profession” requirement of OCGA § 24-7-702 c 2 C or the “supervision” requirement of subparagraph c 2 D. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

In 2005, Anita Jackson Postell filed suit against Vicki Hankla, a certified nurse midwife, and Southern OB/GYN Associates, her medical practice, alleging professional negligence in connection with the delivery of Postell’s infant son. Postell alleged that Hankla had breached the standard of care in handling an obstetrical complication known as shoulder dystocia, in which the infant’s shoulders become lodged in the birth canal. As a result, Postell alleged, her son sustained irreversible nerve and muscle damage that has rendered him permanently unable to move or use his right arm.

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