Cochran v. Emory Univ.

Kathy Cochran appeals from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to Emory University on Cochran’s medical malpractice claim. The court held that Cochran was judicially estopped from asserting the claim because she had failed to list it as a potential asset in her bankruptcy case. Cochran claims on appeal that the trial court should have granted her motion for reconsideration of its summary judgment order because she subsequently moved to reopen her bankruptcy case. Because the trial court correctly found that the petition to reopen the bankruptcy was untimely, we affirm.

This case arose when Cochran went to Crawford Long Hospital for the birth of her baby in December 1995. During the delivery, doctors administered epidural anesthesia through a catheter in her back. Cochran began having physical problems after the baby’s birth and decided to have a CT and MR done in either October or November 1997, at the facility where she worked as a radiology technologist. Cochran said she was present when the doctor interpreted the CT and he told her there was a foreign body between her second and fourth lumbar vertebrae. This was later determined to be the tip of the catheter used to administer the anaesthesia during delivery.