Vivian Harris appeals the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Alvin Griffin, M.D., arguing that the trial court erred in concluding that she had no doctor-patient relationship with him. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the trial court’s ruling. Harris sued Griffin, two other doctors, and a hospital, contending that they committed medical malpractice when they failed to diagnose her herniated thoracic disk, which led to permanent neurological motor deficits. Harris testified that she began having terrible back pain in November 1999. On December 6, 1999, she saw one of the defendants, James D. Stillerman, M.D., complaining of numbness and a pins-and-needles sensation in her legs. He sent her for an x-ray on January 4, 2000, and she returned to him the next day, saying her back pain had worsened. Stillerman, a family practitioner, sent her for physical therapy, which she began a few days later. She called Stillerman on January 10, 2000, and reported that physical therapy was helping, but that her therapist told her to report to the doctor that her “gait is like someone who is drunk or someone who has had a stroke.” Harris explained that she just could not keep her balance, despite using a cane.
On January 17, 2000, Harris called Stillerman to complain again of severe back pain. Stillerman referred Harris to Robin Minks, D.O., for treatment, and she went to Minks’s office the next day, but Minks was not there. The day after that, Harris finally saw Minks, who told her she was “just having a little muscle spasm” and gave her an injection in her back for the pain. She testified that after the shot, her condition deteriorated rapidly, with increased numbness in her legs and more difficulty standing and walking.
