Jeter v. Davis-Fischer Sanitarium Co.

• Decision Date: 13 June 1922
• Docket Number: 13463.
• Citation: 113 S.E. 29,28 Ga.App. 708
• Parties: JETER v. DAVIS-FISCHER SANITARIUM CO. ET AL.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

113 S.E. 29

28 Ga.App. 708

JETER v. DAVIS-FISCHER SANITARIUM CO. ET AL.

No. 13463.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, First Division

June 13, 1922

Rehearing Denied July 11, 1922.

Syllabus by the Court.

The plaintiff sued the Davis-Fischer Sanitarium Company, a corporation, and Dr. E. C. Davis, and alleged substantially that the Davis-Fischer Sanitarium Company is a private sanitarium, run for the purpose of administering to the sick and afflicted for hire; that Dr. E. C. Davis is a practicing physician, and is president of the sanitarium; that on July 30, 1921, one Mrs. Lovvorn was a patient in the hospital, and was operated on by Dr. Davis; that after the operation Dr Davis stated that his patient was in need of blood transfusion; that upon it being known to her that Dr. Davis had stated that it would be necessary to make transfusion of blood for his patient Mrs. Lovvorn, she (Mrs. Jeter) offered her services, and proposed that the blood be taken from her that after a test of her blood was made, and while her husband was away (he also having offered his blood for the transfusion), the doctors and nurses of the sanitarium placed her on the operating table, telling her that the taking of the blood from her arm would not amount to more than a pin scratch, and that the blood would be taken with a needle and she would scarcely know it; that she told the doctors and nurses not to cut her arm, but to take the blood with a needle only; that without her knowledge the doctors and nurses made an incision in her arm, and with forceps and with their bare fingers pulled up a vein and took the necessary blood for the transfusion from a vein; that the incision was sewed up by the doctors of the sanitarium and she was put to bed in the hospital; that she did not know that there was an incision made in her arm until after the doctors had quit taking the blood and were sewing her arm up; that on account of the treatment she received at said sanitarium by said doctors and nurses she has been unable to use her arm, and it has become stiff and her health has been almost ruined; that she has lost weight, suffered pain, and is unable to attend to her ordinary household duties; that the said sanitarium through and by its agents and employees and the said Dr Davis, mistreated, maltreated, and unlawfully abused injured, and damaged her by the said acts; that they willfully committed a tort on her by cutting her arm over her...