EXPENSIVE FALL Mark A. Corbitt, MD, allegedly fell from a stool similar to this one.

A Georgia surgeon who sued the hospital where he was operating after falling off a rolling stool in the OR and cracking his head on the floor is entitled to a $7 million payout, says a jury.

The accident happened in early 2010. Mark A. Corbitt, MD, was finishing an emergency appendectomy at the South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, Ga., and tried to sit down on a 4-legged stool with plastic caster wheels to begin charting. The hospital says Dr. Corbitt attempted to sit on the stool without looking at it.

According to Dr. Corbitt's complaint, the stool "shot out from underneath" him, and he fell backwards and "struck his head violently." In the months following, his lawyers say, he had at least 4 grand mal seizures, The stool, Dr. Corbitt's lawyers argued, was "wholly unsafe and unsuitable for use on the hard, slick flooring surfaces" of the hospital's ORs.

Previously, Dr. Corbitt had "a bustling medical practice and an extremely loyal patient following," say his lawyers. He now has debilitating migraine headaches, many of which cause nausea and vomiting.

The hospital argued that Dr. Corbitt was simply careless, that he had done thousands of surgeries while sitting on rolling stools, that he knew that "a person should look at a stool before sitting on it," and that he failed to exercise care for his own safety. The hospital also maintained that 2 motor vehicle accidents in 2008 had caused or contributed to Dr. Corbitt's condition.

But at least one other hospital employee, a surgical technician, had complained to hospital management that the same type of stool would "come out from under you" when you tried to sit on it, according to court papers. The employee was advised to "hook her foot around the stool when sitting on it," and no other action was taken, according to the complaint.

Additionally, Dr. Corbitt's lawyers introduced expert testimony that due to its hard, plastic casters, the stool was "over 100 times more likely to roll out from under a user than an identical stool with correct, and suitable, rubber wheels." The stool from which Dr. Corbitt fell, they argued, was only suitable for use on a soft, carpeted flooring surface.

Dr. Corbitt, now 54, was later diagnosed with permanent and irreversible trauma-induced epilepsy. He has surrendered his medical license and closed his practice.

The jury returned a $10 million verdict. It apportioned 70% of the responsibility for the accident to the hospital, and 30% to the surgeon.

"While we respect the jury's verdict, SGMC is disappointed that the jury didn't accept our explanation of the incident," a hospital spokesperson tells Outpatient Surgery. "SGMC is considering next steps, such as whether to appeal the verdict or not." Attempts to reach Dr. Corbitt were unsuccessful.

Jim Burger