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Lockhart v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga.

The plaintiff met her burden of establishing waiver of sovereign immunity over that portion of her claim asserting negligence from a state-employed dentist's failure to contact her for a follow-up appointment and his failure to timely remove her temporary crowns and replace them with permanent crowns.

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Lynne Lockhart filed a medical negligence action against the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia the “Board of Regents”1 and against MCG Health, Inc. “MCGHI”. The Board of Regents moved to dismiss and MCGHI moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted both motions, and Lockhart appeals. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

Lockhart sought treatment for her teeth from Steven K. Nelson, DMD,2 at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry “Dental School”. She deposed that Dr. Nelson was supposed to put three implants in her upper left jaw, and that she never authorized him to work on her bottom teeth. She came to an October 13, 2004, dental appointment expecting work to be done for the upper implants. When Dr. Nelson began working on her bottom teeth, however, Lockhart assumed he was “doing some bonding, maybe getting some stain off, maybe getting some decay out. I never once, my hand to God, thought that he was drilling them down to put crowns on them.” When Lockhart got up to spit in the sink, she looked in a mirror and saw that her lower teeth had been drilled down to “nubs.” Dr. Nelson made temporary crowns for the lower teeth, then told her someone would call her when she needed to come back for permanent crowns. No one ever called Lockhart, so she contacted the dental clinic four months later, in February 2005, and was given an appointment. She deposed that when Dr. Nelson removed the temporary crowns, her teeth were “bloody, stubby, soft-looking things” and when Dr. Nelson saw them, he “freaked out.” This litigation ensued.

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