The plaintiff, Angela Williams, sued Dr. Wesley H. Barry and his practice, Advanced Surgical Associates, claiming that her minor son, Li'Jonas Williams, died as a result of an improperly performed gallbladder surgery by Dr. Barry. The trial court had initially ruled in favor of the defendants, stating a lack of substantial evidence tying the surgery to the cause of death.
Williams appealed this decision to the Alabama Supreme Court, arguing there was enough evidence. Expert testimonies conflicted as to whether Dr. Barry had breached standard care in performing surgery without conducting an ultrasound first. Discrepancies also arose concerning whether multiple surgical clips found in the postmortem were a normal part of cholecystectomy. While defense experts contended that the surgical clips and lack of excessive blood in postmortem indicated no fault of the surgery in the death, Williams' expert noted that the discrepancy in the number of clips could be a factor contributing to death and that the surgery itself may have caused complications.
Considering these contradictory testimonies, the Alabama Supreme Court saw enough substantial evidence to reverse the trial court's ruling of granting judgement to Dr. Barry and Advanced Surgical Associates. It remanded the case for further proceedings.
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