Georgia malpractice type allegations

Georgia Pediatric Emergency and Discharge Delay Allegations

Pediatric emergency and discharge-delay allegations often concern whether abnormal vital signs, imaging findings, respiratory symptoms, neurological symptoms, or worsening condition should have led to further workup, admission, transfer, or specialist escalation.

Overview

These examples are public Georgia complaint summaries involving pediatric emergency evaluation, discharge decisions, delayed escalation, or alleged failure to treat urgent pediatric symptoms. The grouping is limited to cases where the pediatric emergency or discharge decision is central to the filing, and the allegations remain unproven unless a court decides otherwise.

Related case summaries

Full case summaries

Read the linked case summary for the fuller allegations-only discussion.

CHOA complaint alleges child discharged despite worsening bowel-obstruction symptoms

This page concerns a pediatric emergency case at CHOA in which a physician recognized a substantial stool obstruction, unsuccessful bedside treatment did not relieve it, the child nevertheless was discharged despite worsening signs, and she returned in critical condition before dying after emergency surgery.

Provider grouping: Children’s Hospital of Atlanta
Care setting: CHOA emergency department
Providers involved: CHOA emergency department / Dr. Michael Greenwald / Nurse Gabriel Ribeiro
Alleged pattern: Substantial bowel obstruction followed by discharge home despite worsening symptoms and failed bedside treatment
Claimed harm: Wrongful death

Children’s Hospital of AtlantaPremature dischargePediatric emergency medicineRead the case summary

CHOA-Hughes Spalding complaint alleges repeated discharges before a child’s pneumonia death

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that a pediatric patient died after repeated emergency-room and pediatric-office encounters in which providers allegedly failed to perform diagnostic testing or admit the child despite abnormal vital signs.

Provider grouping: Emory Healthcare / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: CHOA-Hughes Spalding Emergency Room
Providers involved: Emory Healthcare Inc. / Emory University / The Emory Clinic, Inc. / Children’s Hospital Atlanta / CHOA-Hughes Spalding Emergency Room / Jennifer M. Collier-Madon, M.D. / Mark A. Griffiths, M.D. / Kaley L. French, M.D. / Anjali S. Chaudhari, M.D. / Rajani Chaudhari, M.D. / Rajani Chaudhari MD/PC
Alleged pattern: Alleged repeated pediatric emergency and office discharges without pneumonia workup or admission
Claimed harm: death from extensive advanced pneumonia, pleuritis, and empyema

Emory Healthcare / Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisPediatricsRead the case summary

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston complaint alleges delayed recognition of need for neurosurgery

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, pediatric neurosurgery providers, and related entities failed to recognize the need for urgent surgical intervention after headache presentations and CT imaging.

Provider grouping: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston
Providers involved: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. / Pediatric Neurosurgery Associates at Children’s, LLC / Emory University, Inc. / David Michael Wrubel, M.D. / Joshua Jiachuh Chern, M.D. / Reem Amer Dawoud, M.D. / Fadi Paul Jacob, M.D.
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to recognize need for urgent neurosurgical intervention after headache presentations
Claimed harm: spinal stroke, brain injury, permanent disability, inability to walk, and ongoing medical expenses

Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisPediatric neurosurgeryRead the case summary

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding complaint alleges improper discharge before fatal epiglottitis

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that providers at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding improperly discharged a pediatric patient with abnormal vital signs and respiratory symptoms before the patient died from acute epiglottitis and pneumonia.

Provider grouping: Emory University / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding
Providers involved: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding / Alesia Fleming, M.D. / Jenna Gorbatkin, M.D. / Emory + Children’s Pediatric Institute, Inc. / Emory University
Alleged pattern: Alleged discharge of a pediatric patient with abnormal vital signs and respiratory symptoms
Claimed harm: death from acute epiglottitis and pneumonia two days after emergency-department discharge

Emory University / Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisEmergency medicineRead the case summary

Pediatric Associates of Savannah complaint alleges respiratory-distress failures before infant death

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that pediatric providers failed to adequately address a premature infant’s persistent respiratory distress before an emergency hospitalization and later death.

Provider grouping: Pediatric Associates of Savannah
Care setting: Pediatric Associates of Savannah
Providers involved: Pediatric Associates of Savannah, P.C. / Paul L. Nave, M.D. / John Steven Hobby, M.D.
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to monitor and treat persistent respiratory distress in a premature infant
Claimed harm: respiratory decline, emergency hospitalization, and infant death

Pediatric Associates of SavannahFailure to monitorPediatricsRead the case summary

Northeast Georgia Gainesville amended complaint alleges delayed antibiotics before an unstable transfer and meningitis

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that an infant flagged as septic received no antibiotics before an unstable transfer between hospitals.

Provider grouping: Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Inc.
Care setting: Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville
Providers involved: Michael Lee Patterson, MD / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. / Sidhant Nagrani, MD / Georgia Emergency Department Services, Inc. / Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Inc. / Vivian Ruth Barbara-Stark, MD / Pediatric Emergency Medicine Associates, LLC
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to give antibiotics to an infant flagged as septic before an unstable transfer between hospitals
Claimed harm: bacterial meningitis, strokes, and permanent disability

Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Inc.Delayed or missed diagnosisPediatricsRead the case summary

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite complaint alleges appendicitis missed before perforation

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that an emergency physician discharged a child with suspected appendicitis without ordering imaging or blood work.

Provider grouping: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite
Providers involved: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. d/b/a Scottish Rite Hospital / Martin G. Belson, M.D. / Pediatric Emergency Medicine Associates, LLC
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to order imaging, blood work, or antibiotics for a child referred emergently for suspected appendicitis
Claimed harm: perforated gangrenous appendicitis with peritonitis in a child

Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisEmergency medicineRead the case summary

CHOA Scottish Rite complaint alleges ED sepsis-workup failures before a 17-year-old patient’s death

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that an emergency-department physician and hospital staff did not properly work up a worsening bacterial infection. It alleges they discharged a feverish, tachycardic teenager who died hours later.

Provider grouping: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite Hospital
Providers involved: Thomas J. Abramo, M.D. / Pediatric Emergency Medicine Associates, LLC / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc.
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to work up a bacterial infection and reconsider a rhinovirus diagnosis in a feverish, tachycardic, hypotensive patient before emergency-department discharge
Claimed harm: undiagnosed bacterial infection, sepsis, and death

Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisPediatric emergency medicineRead the case summary

Hughes Spalding Hospital amended complaint alleges a missed urinalysis before a child’s death from diabetic ketoacidosis

This page concerns a public complaint alleging that a Hughes Spalding physician did not perform an ordered urinalysis before a child’s death from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Provider grouping: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Care setting: Hughes Spalding Hospital
Providers involved: Karen F. Colton, MD / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. / Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation / Emory Healthcare, Inc. / Emory University
Alleged pattern: Alleged failure to perform an ordered urinalysis before discharging a vomiting child
Claimed harm: undiagnosed diabetic ketoacidosis and death

Children’s Healthcare of AtlantaDelayed or missed diagnosisPediatricsRead the case summary

Related healthcare providers

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta8 case summaries Emory Healthcare3 case summaries Grady1 case summary

Related Georgia opinions

Related Georgia Opinions

Supreme Court of Georgia: the medical malpractice damages cap cannot touch a verdict that also includes pain-and-suffering damages a jury was entitled to award.Reaffirming Nestlehutt under stare decisis, the Supreme Court held that OCGA § 51-13-1's $350,000 noneconomic damages cap cannot be applied at all to a verdict that includes constitutionally protected noneconomic damages — here, the estate's pre-death pain and suffering. Because the statute lumps every claimant's noneconomic damages into one capped sum and offers no way to carve a verdict apart, the Court vacated an order that had cut a $29,250,000 wrongful death award to $350,000. It expressly reserved whether the cap could reach a stand-alone wrongful death award.