VALDOSTA — A family is claiming their child was disabled due to doctors’ negligence.

However, the doctors argue they did nothing wrong given the information available at the time.

A civil lawsuit is underway this week to determine who is at fault in a 10-year-old case involving a baby who contracted meningitis back in 2008.

The case is being tried in Lowndes County Superior Court with Tift Circuit Judge Gary C. McCorvey presiding.

The plaintiff is Patreace Brinson, the mother of Kurrenci Moore, now 10 years old.

She is suing for $10 million in damages against Dr. Bryan Shiver, Dr. Wilfredo Rios and Emergency Medicine South, their employer at the time.

Lawyers representing the plaintiff and defense both gave opening

statements Wednesday morning.

Attorney Allen McConnaughhay gave the opening for the plaintiff. He put the blame of Moore contracting meningitis on Shiver, who was a physician assistant, and Rios, the PA supervisor. 

McConnaughhay said the doctors failed to perform a blood test when Moore’s mother brought him to South Georgia Medical Center in September 2008. He said Brinson brought her son to see Shiver at the hospital reporting a fever, diarrhea, issues eating, stomach pain and increased sleeping. 

All of these symptoms are signs of bacteremia, the first stage of meningitis.

Meningitis begins with bacteria in the blood stream. If bacteremia is discovered quickly, it can be treated with antibiotics and snuffed out immediately, McConnaughhay said. 

If left untreated, the patient will become septic and develop meningitis, which means the bacteria has reached the patient’s brain, causing permanent and irreparable damage.

This happened to 3-month-old Kurrenci Moore.

The meningitis caused seizures and a stroke that left him unable to use his right arm and leg and destroyed parts of his brain, the plaintiff’s attorney said. 

McConnaughhay said Moore will have mental and physical limitations for the rest of his life. He will never be able to get a job and will always need someone to take care of him. 

When Moore was brought to see Shiver, the 3-month-old did not have a fever or show any of the signs his mother mentioned to him, according to his report at the time. Shiver prescribed Moore with medication for a runny nose and told his mother to take the baby to a pediatrician in the next three days if the symptoms continued.

McConnaughhay said Shiver should have listened to the mother and followed up with a blood exam. If he had done this, he said the bacteria would have been discovered and treated.

Instead, Shiver “made a diagnosis of the least troubling symptom and sent them home,” McConnaughhay said. 

“This delayed treatment. The mother leaves feeling that everything is fine.”

Shiver’s report later went to his supervisor, Rios, who signed off on Shiver’s diagnosis of Moore.

A couple of days later, Moore’s mother took him to a pediatrician where he had a fever, spit up food and was yelling due to pain. The pediatrician had blood work done and prescribed Moore with antibiotics, but it was too late, McConnaughhay said.

Attorney Michael Frankson gave opening statements for the defense. He said Shiver did what any reasonable doctor would have with the information available. 

Frankson said Moore did not have a fever, did not seem to be tired or in pain when he was brought to the hospital. The only noticeable symptoms Shiver saw was a runny nose. 

“The vital signs were normal,” Frankson said. “Without symptoms, you don’t go around ordering spinal taps on every child brought in.”

He said if the baby had come to Shiver with the same symptoms he had with the pediatrician, things would have been different. Frankson said the pediatrician should have admitted Kurrenci Moore to the hospital with those signs but instead sent the baby home and waited for the blood work.

The delay, Frankson said, is the real negligence.

The trial is expected to go all week and into next week. The jury will hear from expert witnesses from both sides.

Frankson said the plaintiff will only bring forward one expert to testify that Shiver and Rios were negligent with their treatment. The defense, however, will have about three experts to speak on behalf of the doctors.

“These experts will say the doctors acted appropriately with the information available and that they did what was reasonable,” Frankson said.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256