Hilton Head Island medical malpractice attorney, Daphne Withrow, of Olivetti, McCray and Withrow, along with Daniel J. Moriarty of Moriarty Personal Injury Lawyer and C. Andrew Childers of Childers, Schlueter & Smith and Jen Jordan of The Summerville Firm secured a $50 million dental malpractice jury verdict for a Georgia woman who was permanently injured during a root canal procedure.
The plaintiff, Joyce Crawford, went to Lynn A. Livingston, DDS of Dental Care Center of Decatur for a root canal procedure in March of 2019. The surgery left her with permanent numbness and chronic pain in her left cheek, chin and lip. Ms. Crawford’s attorneys allege that defendant Livingston failed to take a proper working length of her root prior to commencing the procedure which caused over-instrumentation of the root canal amounting to negligence and a breach of the accepted standard of care resulting in life-altering permanent nerve damage and chronic pain.
In support of their negligence complaint, the attorneys for Ms. Crawford presented evidence from Ms. Crawford’s attempted nerve repair surgery which showed material used by defendant Livingston in performing the root canal immediately below the inferior alveolar nerve and an approximate discontinuity of the nerve of 80%-90%. It was also alleged that as a result of defendant Livingston’s negligence, caustic chemicals seeped into Ms. Crawford’s inferior alveolar canal impacting the nerve below tooth 18.
“She developed trigeminal neuralgia, which is a horribly painful condition,” said Daphne Withrow who is a registered nurse as well as a medical malpractice attorney. “Ordinary things like brushing her teeth, drinking cold water or even a cool breeze against her face causes her an electrical shock of pain.” This is a chronic condition which will require Ms. Crawford to have pain management for the rest of her life.”
This verdict is a culmination of over five years of litigation. The first verdict for 10 million dollars in August of 2022 was vacated due to an improper jury instruction and a challenge to the expert testimony. The second trial, in May of 2024, ended in a mistrial due to a juror’s late recollection that she had been a patient of Defendant Livingston’s practice in the past. Finally, in October of 2024, the third trial began. The jury heard evidence for two days before deliberating and reaching the 50 million dollar verdict in an hour and fifteen minutes.
Ms. Crawford’s testimony about her experience was authentic and believable. Her testimony was in stark contrast with that of defendant Livingston who evaded responsibility by continually changing his version of what actually happened. The jurors likely picked up on all of defendant Livingston’s inconsistencies throughout his testimony.
The trial strategy was to tell Ms. Crawford’s story in a simple, direct, yet impactful manner. The strategy obviously paid off for the team returning a $50 million verdict in favor of Ms. Crawford.