$9.2 Million Verdict After Surgeons Cut Critical Artery During Polyp Removal at Navicent Health

On March 31, 2017, Allen Turner, 69, went to the Medical Center of Central Georgia (operating as Atrium Health Navicent) to have a polyp removed from his small intestine. Surgeons William Thompson and Heather Nolan performed the procedure, but they had not ordered a CT scan or MRI beforehand. That omission proved fatal.

During the operation, the surgical team encountered an unusually positioned vessel near the surgical site. They misidentified it as a routine blood vessel, clamped it, and cut it. The vessel was actually Turner's superior mesenteric artery, the primary blood supply to the intestines. Restoring flow required additional operations. Turner underwent multiple surgeries over the following 18 days and never recovered. He died of multi-system organ failure.

Norkesia Turner, Allen Turner's daughter and the administrator of his estate, sued the Medical Center of Central Georgia and the two surgeons for medical malpractice and wrongful death. The McArthur and Dellacona law firms represented the family. The central argument at trial was straightforward: standard of care required pre-operative imaging that would have revealed the atypical arterial anatomy before any cut was made. No imaging was done.

Defense counsel argued the surgeons provided capable care under difficult intraoperative conditions. The Bibb County jury disagreed. In early 2023 the jury returned a verdict of approximately $9.2 million, allocating $618,853 for medical and funeral expenses, $1,443,300 for Allen Turner's pain and suffering, and $7,216,500 for the full value of his life under Georgia's wrongful death statute.

The Medical Center of Central Georgia appealed. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict on August 21, 2024, finding the evidence sufficient to support causation. The hospital then sought review by the Georgia Supreme Court, which granted certiorari. On June 24, 2025, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' decision on the noneconomic wrongful death component and remanded the case. The Court held that the statutory $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages (OCGA Section 51-13-1) may apply to wrongful death claims, a question distinct from its earlier ruling in Nestlehutt, which addressed pain-and-suffering awards. The economic damages of roughly $2 million were not disturbed. The total recovery ultimately available to the family remains subject to those further proceedings.