Hure Betha sued Dr. Carley Ebanks for medical malpractice after Betha suffered a severe allergic reaction to medication while being treated for colitis. The case went to trial and the jury returned a defense verdict. Betha appeals, claiming there were several errors in the charge to the jury. For reasons which follow, we conclude there was no reversible error and affirm. 1. In his first enumeration of error, Betha claims the trial court erred in giving a “hindsight” charge. The court charged the jury that, “a physician cannot be found to have committed medical malpractice on the basis of an assessment of a patient’s condition which later or in hindsight proves to be incorrect, as long as the initial assessment was made in accordance with the then reasonable standard of medical care. In other words, the concept of medical malpractice does not encompass hindsight, but in failing to foresee and guard against that which is probable and likely to happen, not against that which is only remotely or slightly possible.”
This charge is authorized in a medical malpractice case “where the evidence raises an issue as to whether the negligence claim is based on later acquired knowledge or information not known or reasonably available to the defendant physician at the time the medical care was rendered.” Mercker v. Abend , 260 Ga. App. 836, 839 581 SE2d 351 2003. In cases such as the instant one, where it is disputed as to what the attending physician knew or should have known at the time of treatment, the hindsight charge is authorized. Mercker , supra at 840; Horton v. Eaton , 215 Ga. App. 803, 807 452 SE2d 541 1994. Compare Kapsch v. Stowers , 209 Ga. App. 767 434 SE2d 539 1993 expert testimony was undisputed that trauma to brachial plexus occurred while plaintiff was on operating table and therefore hindsight charge was not warranted.
