Background
Johnessia Adams Lewis arrived at Marion General Hospital in February 2022 with abdominal pain and constipation. Doctors diagnosed sepsis, constipation, and a possible colonic ileus and admitted her to intensive care. As her condition deteriorated, the hospital sought to transfer her to a facility offering surgery and gastroenterology services. She was eventually transferred, diagnosed with abdominal compartment syndrome, and underwent emergency surgery. She later required additional surgeries, amputations, and dialysis and died in August 2022.
Lewis’s wrongful-death beneficiaries alleged that the hospital and physicians negligently failed to diagnose and treat her abdominal compartment syndrome and sepsis, consult appropriate specialists, and initiate a timely transfer. The defendants sought immunity under Mississippi Code Section 11-71-7, arguing that a COVID-19-related shortage of hospital beds and other resources delayed the transfer. The circuit court granted summary judgment and dismissed all claims.
The Court’s Holding
The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed. Although Section 11-71-7 remained effective when Lewis was treated, the statute protected the defendants only from claims involving acts or omissions attributable to COVID-19-related shortages or otherwise related to the COVID-19 emergency. The record contained no evidence tying the alleged failures to diagnose, treat, or consult to such shortages, so those claims were not covered by the statute.
The Court also found a genuine factual dispute concerning the transfer claim. The defendants’ evidence could explain the approximately twelve hours required to secure an accepting facility after the transfer request began, but it did not explain why the transfer process was not initiated during the preceding eight to ten hours. Plaintiffs’ expert opined that available test results should have led to an earlier diagnosis and transfer request. The Court did not decide whether the defendants were negligent; it held only that COVID-19 immunity did not support summary judgment on this record and remanded for further proceedings.
Key Takeaways
- Mississippi’s COVID-19 healthcare-immunity statute requires a connection between the challenged act or omission and the COVID-19 state of emergency.
- Evidence that pandemic-related bed shortages delayed acceptance of a transfer did not establish immunity for separate alleged failures to diagnose, treat, or consult specialists.
- A factual dispute remained over whether the delayed transfer resulted from COVID-19 resource constraints or from an earlier failure to recognize Lewis’s condition and initiate the transfer process.
Why It Matters
The decision limits the use of pandemic-era healthcare immunity as a basis for disposing of an entire medical-malpractice case. Providers seeking immunity must connect each challenged act or omission to COVID-19-related resource constraints or another statutorily protected circumstance.
The ruling does not establish that the defendants breached the standard of care or caused Lewis’s death. It returns those issues to the circuit court while allowing the plaintiffs’ diagnosis, treatment, consultation, and transfer claims to proceed.