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Woman wins $70,000,000 payout after she collapsed at home and woke up with both legs amputated

Home> News> US News

Updated 19:55 2 May 2025 GMT+1Published 18:34 2 May 2025 GMT+1

Woman wins $70,000,000 payout after she collapsed at home and woke up with both legs amputated

Georgia teacher Jessica Powell had to have both legs amputated above the knee in 2013

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

Featured Image Credit: Facebook

Topics: Georgia, News, Health, Life, Money

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

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@niamhshackleton

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A woman who ended up needing both her legs amputated has won a landmark lawsuit over 10 years on from the surgery.

In March 2013, teacher Jessica Powell from Georgia collapsed in her home because of a hormone deficiency disease coupled with a stomach virus.

She was rushed to hospital to receive urgent medical attention at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, where she was then diagnosed with sepsis and shock, before being given drugs to raise her critically low blood pressure.

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But doctors allegedly botched her treatment and Jessica - who was 28 years old at the time - ended up needing both of her legs amputated above the knee.

A woman filed a lawsuit after both of her legs were amputated (Getty Stock)
A woman filed a lawsuit after both of her legs were amputated (Getty Stock)

According to court documents, the doctors caring for Jessica, now 40, gave her a medication overdose, Union-Bulletin reports.

She alleged she was given the drug Vasopressin at a dose two and a half times the usual maximum dose for more than 40 hours.

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Ultimately, Jessica went on to sue a group of doctors and the hospital for malpractice and after 12 years of back and forth, a jury came to a verdict on the case on April 23 of this year.

Doctors Joe Morgan, James Palazzolo and Thomas Ungarino, as well as Albany Pulmonary and Critical Care Associates and Albany Vascular Specialist Center, were named in the suit, all of whom denied any wrongdoing.

Jessica Powell, now 40, has been awarded $70 million in damages (Facebook)
Jessica Powell, now 40, has been awarded $70 million in damages (Facebook)

Apparently it took the jury just 30 minutes to come to the decision to award Jessica $70 million in damages, making it one of the largest awarded medical malpractice cases in Georgia.

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Matt Cook, a lead attorney for Jessica, said of the jury's 30 minute-long deliberations: "That should tell you everything you need to know about who was right."

He went on to say: "The verdict came as no surprise because we knew from day one that our client was clearly mistreated by her physicians.

"What drove the result was just the repeated denials and unwillingness to accept responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing."

Jessica pictured with her legal team from Cook Law Group LLC (Facebook)
Jessica pictured with her legal team from Cook Law Group LLC (Facebook)

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Despite the ruling, attorneys for the the doctors and companies named said that they 'respectfully disagree' with the ruling.

"The physicians acted appropriately under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and we respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and any notion that these respected physicians failed to meet the standard of care," they said, as per Union-Bulletin.

"Unfortunately, the resulting bilateral above-the-knee amputations, while devastating, were an unavoidable consequence of the life-saving treatment provided."

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