In this medical malpractice case, Mayona Moss sued her physician, William D. Weiss, M.D., for damages arising out of complications from knee replacement surgery.1 A jury trial resulted in a verdict for Weiss. The trial court denied Moss’ motion for new trial and she appeals, contending the trial court made several evidentiary errors and improperly instructed the jury. Finding no error, we affirm. Where the jury returns a verdict which the trial court enters as a judgment, the judgment must be affirmed on appeal if there is any evidence to support the verdict, because the jurors are the exclusive judges of the weight and credibility of the evidence. . . . We must construe the evidence with every inference and presumption in favor of upholding the verdict. Citations and punctuation omitted. DeVooght v. Hobbs , 265 Ga. App. 329, 334 4 593 SE2d 868 2004. Viewed in favor of the jury’s verdict, the evidence showed the following facts. On December 2, 1999, Weiss performed knee replacement surgery on Moss. In Weiss’ post-surgical instructions to hospital personnel, he specifically noted that he did not want “cold therapy” for Moss’ knee by crossing out that portion of the hospital’s standard post-surgical and admissions protocol sheets. During his hospital rounds the morning after surgery, however, Weiss observed that the hospital’s nurses had placed ice packs on Moss’ knee against his orders. Moss’ knee had been wrapped in bandages and covered with a towel, with the ice packs placed on top. The evidence conflicted as to exactly when the ice was placed on Moss’ knee.
Weiss testified that it irritated him that the nurses had failed to follow his orders, and he told Moss that the ice packs were placed on her knee against his orders. Weiss told the nurse in the room that he did not want ice packs on Moss’ knee and she immediately removed the packs, so he thought “that was the end of it.” He did not believe it was necessary to write the same instructions in Moss’ chart. He also testified that he did not mention the ice packs in Moss’ chart because he did not think use of the ice was significant. Weiss testified that he did not see any medical problems associated with the use of ice packs during his exam that day and he did not expect to see any problems develop because of them.
