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Arnsdorff v. Fortner10/18/2005
ANDREWS, P. J., PHIPPS and MIKELL, JJ.
In this personal injury action arising out of an automobile collision between Cecil Fortner and Alan Lee Arnsdorff, a Bryan County jury awarded Fortner $7,000,000 in damages. On appeal, Arnsdorff argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for new trial, refusing to allow cross-examination concerning collateral source benefits, allowing the introduction of incomplete medical bills, and overruling his motion for a mistrial. We affirm.
The record shows that at approximately 9:00 p.m. on September 2, 2003, Arnsdorff `s and Fortner's vehicles collided, after Arnsdorff failed to obey a stop sign before making a left turn. Senior trooper Lisa Bowen of the Georgia State Patrol investigated the accident. Bowen testified that Arnsdorff was legally intoxicated when the accident occurred. Arnsdorff was criminally charged in connection with the accident and pled guilty to DUI, failure to yield, and four counts of serious injury by accident, which facts were stipulated at trial. As a result of the collision, Fortner sustained serious injuries and required hospitalization from September 2 through December 29, 2003.
Fortner was transferred to Memorial Hospital in Savannah, Georgia, by ambulance after the hospital to which he was initially taken intubated him and determined that his injuries were so serious that they could not adequately treat him at their facility. Dr. William Bromberg, a general surgeon and trauma critical care physician at Memorial, testified by deposition that Fortner presented with an interior abdominal wall hemorrhage; that he had suffered respiratory distress rendering him incapable of breathing on his own, which was the reason he had been intubated at the first hospital; that Fortner's abdominal bleeding was a life-threatening condition and required surgery; that Fortner's surgical site became infected, causing him to develop sepsis; that the sepsis led to further lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome; and that a second surgery was performed to clean out the infected surgical site. Dr. Bromberg further testified that after the second surgery, Fortner's condition slowly improved, but fluid and blood continued to collect around his right lung, which also developed into a life-threatening condition; that a cardiothoracic surgeon performed Fortner's third surgery, a thoracotomy, which required that the surgeon expose Fortner's lung to extract any retained, clotted blood and fluid from it; that Fortner remained critically ill for about a month; and that Fortner remained ventilated for several weeks and required chemical paralysis to ensure adequate ventilation, which was achieved through administering pain and sedative medication to paralyze him intermittently. Tubes remained in Fortner's chest cavity after the surgery to continue to drain the fluid.
Dr. Bromberg identified photographs of both surgical sites and explained that the wounds could not be closed due to infection. Dr. Bromberg recalled that Fortner suffered renal failure due to his severe infection and required dialysis; that he underwent daily wound dressing changes to heal his wounds; that he started to improve after they performed a tracheostomy and weaned him from the ventilator; that Fortner underwent rehabilitative and physical therapy, which was very difficult for him; and that they later found that Fortner had sustained a shoulder injury, which was not life-threatening but ultimately also required surgery.
Dr. Bromberg opined that Fortner would likely need another surgery to repair the hernia that resulted from the abdominal surgeries, that the surgery would require a five to seven day hospital stay, but that he woul
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