Alabama Jury Awards $20M in Medical Malpractice Suit Against Hospital

A jury in northeast Alabama has returned a $20 million verdict against a local rehab hospital.

The Gadsden Times reports that an Etowah County jury on May 18 found that a woman received an overdose of non-prescribed opiates while she was a patient at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital. A complaint against the hospital says Doris Green’s neurological and cognitive abilities remained impaired from the time of the overdose July 5, 2011.

Green died Oct. 22, 2011 as a proximate result of an allergic and/or adverse reaction to the opiates.

Attorney David Marsh says he believes the case could be appealed. Marsh says it could be 18 months to two years before the judgment awarded would be paid.

Marsh says Green worked for 30 years with the Auburn Cooperative Extension Agency.