This article has been changed to reflect more recent information in the story.
The Emory Clinic Healthcare Sleep Center and the DeKalb EMT will have to pay the family of Brandon Maurice Harris $20.5 million in a wrongful death case, pending a potential appeal.
Harris died while participating in an Emory Sleep Lab study, managed by Emory University Hospital and Neurocare, Inc., in January 2010, according to a Sept. 29 Cochran Firm Atlanta press release.
Harris’s adoptive mother, Renee “Sunshine” Lewis, pursued a wrongful death lawsuit following the incident.
At the end of September, after a week-long trial, the DeKalb County jury issued Lewis and her family about $10 million for suffering and $10.5 million for the value of the 25-year-old’s life. The ruling mandates that Emory pay about $12.5 million, which was about 60 percent of the total settlement, while DeKalb EMT is responsible to pay for the remaining 39 percent.
Defense attorney for the Emory Clinic Eric Frisch said that he hopes to appeal this decision, according to an Oct. 1 Daily Report article. Continued litigation is likely, according to Frisch.
“Since January 2010, the Emory community has shared in the loss of Brandon Harris. The case remains in litigation at this time, so we cannot comment further,” Vince Dollard, associate vice president of communications for the Woodruff Health Sciences, wrote in an email to the Wheel.
Emory Sleep Clinic physicians did not respond to requests for comment.
The DeKalb Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Harris’s medical history, which included Type 2 diabetes, caused him to go into an unanticipated cardiac arrest during the sleep apnea study, the AJC reported.
The 2010 study was recorded on video and reviewed during the settlement. Harris reportedly asked for medical attention during the study, when he began to feel discomfort.
However, he was not immediately treated due to a lack of coordination between the Sleep Lab and DeKalb EMT, Attorney Jane Lamberti said while representing Harris’s family.
Frisch diverted responsibility from Emory, arguing that DeKalb EMT did not respond and attend to Harris in a timely manner, according to Daily Report. The defense also argued in favor of Emory’s medical staff.
“Emory’s portion of the pretrial declared that, while [David] Schulman did serve as the sleep center’s medical director, he had nothing to do with Harris’s treatment and that no one affiliated with Emory was responsible for his death,” according to Daily Report.
Emory Clinic sleep specialist Srinivas Bhadriraju had referred Harris to the study when Harris voiced concern that he had trouble sleeping. Bhadriraju was held at no financial fault for Harris’s death.
However, Bhadriraju made mistakes, the prosecutor said in her argument against Emory. Harris had always experienced shortness of breath when lying down and should have been on an incline during the study, she said, adding that Bhadriraju did not ensure that this happened.
Lewis could not stay with her son overnight because of the Sleep Lab’s policies, but she was comfortable with that because she “trusted that this was Emory University,” Lamberti added.
Lewis was relieved with the jury’s verdict and overjoyed to see justice for her son, according to the Cochran Firm Atlanta.
“For the first time in five years,” she said in Cochran press release, “I’ve been able to sleep.”
emily.sullivan@emory.edu | Emily Sullivan (18C) is from Blue Bell, Pa., majoring in international studies and minoring in ethics. She served most recently as news editor. Last summer, she interned with Atlanta Magazine. Emily dances whenever she can and is interested in the relationship between journalism and human rights issues.
