Twelve years after waking up in a hospital to discover her legs had been amputated, a teacher has received one of the largest medical malpractice payouts in Georgia history.
In March 2013, Powell - then a 28-year-old teacher from Camilla - collapsed in her home after falling ill with a stomach virus and complications from a hormone deficiency disease.
She was rushed to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, where doctors diagnosed her with sepsis and shock. In a bid to save her life, she was given drugs to raise her dangerously low blood pressure.
But what was meant to be a life-saving treatment turned into a life-altering catastrophe.
According to court documents, Powell was administered Vasopressin at two and a half times the recommended maximum dose — and the overdose continued for more than 40 hours.
Since Vasopressin works by constricting blood vessels, Powell claimed the extreme dose caused a dramatic drop in blood flow to her legs and feet, starving them of oxygen, per the Union-Bulletin.
The result? Both legs were amputated above the knee.
She sued. And for 12 years, that legal battle dragged on.
Now 40, Powell finally had her day in court — and on April 23, a jury in Dougherty County took just 30 minutes to side with her, awarding her $70 million in damages.
“That should tell you everything you need to know about who was right,” said Matt Cook, one of Powell’s lead attorneys. “The verdict came as no surprise because we knew from day one that our client was clearly mistreated by her physicians.”
He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “What drove the result was just the repeated denials and unwillingness to accept responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing.”
Powell had filed her suit against multiple individuals and institutions involved in her care, including Doctors Joe Morgan, James Palazzolo and Thomas Ungarino, as well as Albany Pulmonary and Critical Care Associates and Albany Vascular Specialist Center. All denied any wrongdoing.
But after reviewing two and a half weeks of testimony and evidence, the jury split liability 50/50 between Morgan and Albany Vascular, and the other half between Palazzolo, Ungarino, and Albany Pulmonary.
Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, where the treatment occurred, had already settled Powell’s claims prior to trial and was no longer listed as a defendant.
Attorneys for the doctors and medical groups issued a statement in response to the verdict, saying: “The physicians acted appropriately under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and we respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and any notion that these respected physicians failed to meet the standard of care.”
They also added: “Unfortunately, the resulting bilateral above-the-knee amputations, while devastating, were an unavoidable consequence of the life-saving treatment provided.”
But Powell’s legal team saw it differently. Shane Lazenby, another of her attorneys, said: “Instead of embracing their mistake, which probably would have resonated with the jury, they denied it and said, ‘We meant to administer the care this way.’”
“Jessica and her sisters are just great people and I think the jury connected with them because they're just good folks,” he added.
Meanwhile, on the Cook Law Group LLC Facebook page, a spokesperson for the law firm wrote alongside the story: "These doctors and their lawyers still won't accept any blame."