Woman dies hours after doctors dismissed her stomach pain as ‘normal’ following common procedure

An Alabama grandmother died mere hours after a straightforward procedure after doctors neglected to treat her for persistent pain that they brushed off as ‘normal.’

Seventy-one-year-old Anne Davis’ death could have been prevented, according to her family as well as a jury of 12 strangers who determined after just an hour of deliberation that doctors at Wiregrass Surgical in Dothan, Alabama, failed to recognize an infection leading to deadly sepsis.

According to a lawsuit filed by Mrs Davis’ family, two doctors – her surgeon and his partner – dismissed her persistent stomach pain for about two days following surgery to remove her gallbladder.

When a third doctor in the emergency room finally took her seriously, he discovered that her stomach was filled with bile. She died that same day, a death which lawyers argued could have been prevented.

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Anne Davis underwent surgery in September 2017, one of the most common surgical procedures performed and is often done using small incisions and the use of a camera to make recovery quicker and less painful.

But her recovery was anything but painless.

She was given pain medication and discharged from the hospital, with assurance from the surgeon that some pain was to be expected.

Mrs Davis’ husband Billy called Wiregrass Surgical about Anne’s symptoms and was told again that pain was a normal aftereffect, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

On September 22, when the pain was as intense as ever, Mr Davis took his wife back to the clinic for help. Her surgeon’s partner, Dr Bradley T Marker, once again said her pain was ‘normal’ and gave her a different prescription pain medication.

Their daughter, Betsy Davis Swihart, said: ‘He told dad it was fine to send my mom home, and then he pretty much dismissed him and sent him home.’

The doctors’ recommendations to send Mrs Davis home were documented in their medical notes.

Dr Bradley T Marker, a physician at Wiregrass Surgical, admitted to have altered his medical notes after Mrs Davis became septic to make it look like he had recommended she got to he hospital earlier on, when he actually told her it would be safe for her to go home

Anne Davis and her husband Billy [show right] were told repeatedly that her severe abdominal pain after surgery was ‘normal’ and were sent home. When Billy took her to the emergency department, doctors discovered that she had an infection causing her to go septic

When the pain got worse later that night, Mr Davis called in an emergency medical team to bring her to a nearby emergency department. There, doctors finally took her vital signs and gave her a more thorough investigation.

According to the lawsuit, her stomach was ‘full of bile’. In normal circumstances, bile stays within bile ducts and the gallbladder, but if trauma, such as surgery, causes a leak, bile can spill into the abdominal cavity. From there, bacteria enter the area and cause infection that must be treated promptly.

While the doctors had noted the first couple of times that they saw Mrs Davis that they approved her to go home, one of them tried to backpedal after she got extremely sick by amending his earlier recommendation.

Attorney Leon Ashford said: ‘After [the doctor] comes in and sees her laying in a bed on a ventilator with sepsis, knowing she’s going to die, he goes to his dictaphone and dictates a note that says, ‘I told her this morning that she needed to go to the hospital, and she declined.’”

A $6 million lawsuit won by the family alleged that Mrs Davis’ death could have been prevented if her doctors had not failed to treat her

Dr Marker said on the stand that he was trying to ‘paint a different narrative’ by doing this, leading the jury to recognize that he had been blaming the family instead of taking responsibility, according to Ashley Peinhardt, another attorney on the team against Wiregrass Surgical and its doctors.

The family won the case and was awarded $6 million, though they have not received it. Mr Davis will never see the sum. In the seven years since losing his wife, he developed dementia.

He died last month.

Ms Swihart, a special education teacher, said: ‘My dad would have done anything to get my mom help, and he tried to do everything he could to get her help.’

Mrs Davis was ‘like one of those TV moms, like one of the 50s sitcom kind of moms,’ according to her daughter. She enjoyed gardening, fishing, sewing, and taking care of her grandchildren.

Ms Swihart said: ‘She would take my children to school every morning because I had to be at work extra early, so I didn’t want to have to drag them with me.

‘Mom would step in a lot. She left some enormous shoes to fill.’