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Flournoy v. Goble6/24/2002
Tabatha Goble sued Dr. Henry Flournoy for medical negligence, claiming that she suffered severe injuries because he perforated her small bowel during a diagnostic laparoscopic surgical procedure and failed or refused to acknowledge that the problems she experienced after surgery could have been caused by a bowel injury. Her husband, Claude Goble, sued Flournoy for loss of consortium. The jury awarded Tabatha Goble $150,000 for her injuries, but awarded Claude Goble nothing. Flournoy appeals in Case No. A02A0436, claiming that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding from evidence the consent form Tabatha Goble signed prior to the surgery and by failing to give several jury charges he requested. We find no merit in Flournoy's claims and affirm the judgment against him. Claude Goble appeals in Case No. A02A0437, claiming that the trial court erred by entering a judgment awarding no loss of consortium damages despite the jury's award of personal injury damages to his wife. We agree and reverse and remand for a new trial on the issue of damages only.
On February 8, 1994, Flournoy performed a diagnostic laparoscopy on Tabatha Goble to determine the cause of pelvic pain. She was discharged that day and was told that she should be able to return to work in two or three days. Flournoy did not realize that during the procedure, he had perforated or injured Goble's bowel with an instrument called a trocar, which he had inserted into her abdomen.
Over the next ten days, Goble suffered from nausea, vomiting and pain. She was unable to get out of bed during that period without assistance, and left her bed only to go to the bathroom. Goble's mother stayed with her during the days after the surgery and called Flournoy's office several times to inform him of her daughter's nausea and vomiting. Flournoy's office staff called in two different prescriptions for nausea medication. When neither medication worked, a nurse came to Goble's home and gave her an injection. It did not help either. Claude Goble informed another doctor in Flournoy's office over the weekend of his wife's continued nausea and vomiting and told him that her only previous stomach problem had been an ulcer several years earlier. That doctor thought that Tabatha Goble's symptoms were consistent with an ulcer and authorized her to take Zantac and Maalox. When his wife did not improve, Claude Goble called Flournoy's office again on February 18 and left a message with the answering service. When Flournoy returned the call, Tabatha Goble answered and informed him that they were going to the emergency room.
Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, Tabatha Goble underwent emergency exploratory surgery. The surgeon testified that her bowel had two small holes in it, which must have resulted from the first surgery, and that her condition upon arrival at the emergency room was life-threatening. After the emergency surgery, Tabatha Goble was hospitalized for almost a month. When she was discharged, she recuperated at her mother's house for almost two months. During that time, she was very depressed and could not do anything with her husband except sit in the same room with him.
The emergency surgery left Tabatha Goble with a large visible scar on her abdomen. She no longer has a belly button. She later had additional surgery to repair a hernia likely caused by the emergency surgery and to help reduce her scar. After her hospitalization for that surgery, she again recuperated at her mother's house for some period of time.
Case No. A02A0436
1. Flournoy claims that the trial court erred by granting the Gobles' motion in limine to exclude evidence of the consent form signed by Tabatha Goble
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