A Liberty County State Court jury has awarded the family of a former Army officer who was hit and killed on Highway 196 four years ago $7.5 million in a wrongful death suit.

Stephen Gerber had been a decorated Army officer but was suffering from alcoholism post-traumatic stress disorder. He was taken to the emergency room at Liberty Regional Medical Center and signed in at 11:26 p.m. on April 19, 2020. But he was declared to be discharged five minutes later.

An hour and a half later, Gerber walked out of the emergency department and was crossing Highway 196 when he was struck by a car. He succumbed to his injuries less than two hours later.

The lawsuit, brought by the firm Arnold and Stafford on behalf of his wife Jill Hopkins and Gerald Gerber, charged the hospital failed to follow its standard of care for Gerber before he was allowed to walk out of the hospital.

The jury divided the responsibility, with 40% going to the ER doctor, Dr. Aaron Ward, and another 40% placed on ER nurse Heather Stuckey. Neither Dr. Ward nor Stuckey currently are employed at LRMC.

The jury placed the remaining responsibility on Gerber himself, giving the family a settlement of $6 million from Dr. Ward and Stuckey.

Jeff Arnold of Arnold and Stafford pointed to a failure of communication at the emergency room between the doctor and the nurse.

“They were dismissive of a wounded warrior,” he said.

The plaintiffs argued Dr. Ward was grossly negligent in “failing to use even slight care or diligence in properly and timely caring for” Gerber, including failing to address his mental confusion and extreme intoxication “and completely failing to ensure that he was properly supervised and prevented from harming himself and basically shoving Stephen Gerber out of the door” of the emergency room.

Stuckey, the plaintiffs said in their complaint, failed to properly triage Gerber and failed to bring his elevated blood pressure readings and erratic behavior to a doctor’s attention. Stuckey also was grossly negligent in allowing “Gerber to leave LRMC in an extreme intoxicated and unstable state.”

Gerber, a West Point graduate who earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan, also had blood in his stool when he was brought to the ER. Yet no tests for blood in his stool and no vital signs were taken.

Gerber was declared for discharge at 11:31 p.m., but 45 minutes later, Stuckey was making phone calls to find someone to pick him up. Hopkins could not pick up him at the hospital because of an existing restraining order against him. Stuckey told one of the deputies she didn’t want to let him go because of his condition but was told no police were coming to get him as he wasn’t under arrest and they were not aware of any other family in the area.

Fifteen minutes later, however, with Gerber becoming impatient, Stuckey let him leave the ER on his own at 12:34 a.m.

Within three minutes of walking out of that hospital, Gerber was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries, Arnold added.

“Instead of rendering care, they adopted a policy of ‘sober and go,’” Arnold said. “A discharge diagnosis before a patient has been seen is reprehensible and should be abolished immediately.”

Long County sheriff ’s deputies were called to Hopkins’ home when Gerber showed up “heavily intoxicated.” He also urinated and defecated on himself and throughout the house. A deputy found him unconscious and Hopkins said she was afraid of his condition, given the black color of his fecal matter.

The emergency medical technicians who took Gerber to the LRMC emergency room noted he was “conscious, alert and oriented to person, place and event but was confused at times.”

The heroes in this case, Arnold and Craig Stafford of Arnold and Stafford said, were the EMTs and paramedics who testified in the case. They each testified that Dr. Ward told them he would have Gerber discharged before the two of them returned to their ambulance.

“They had the courage to come forward and reveal not only the essential facts of confusion and black stool and other conditions that warranted admission to the hospital,” Arnold said, “they also noted the doctor told them he will be out of there before you are.”

On the way to the ER, Gerber’s blood pressure was 188/118, an “extremely abnormally elevated” rate, the lawyers contended.

Even upon leaving the ER, Dr. Ward had to show Gerber how to push the button to open the door and Gerber put back on his fecal-stained clothes.

“This was a tragic case that could have been avoided if the doctor and nurse had communicated with each other,” Arnold said.

Arnold added Gerber’s death could have been prevented had the nurse advocated for him when she knew the doctor was not taking care of him.

Arnold said the defense put its case on Gerber being free to go from the emergency room on his own.

“But that wasn’t the case,” he said. “If I see blood in your stool, or believe there is blood in your stool, I think I need to talk to you about it. I think I need to do some testing.”

Stafford also pointed to the EMS report of an “altered mental status” and yet no further tests were conducted.

“No CT scan, no blood work, nothing to look into the altered mental status,” Stafford said. “They just wrote it off as being a drunk. We know he had PTSD. You can’t write this all off just to intoxication.”

Jury selection was conducted December 9, and Arnold and Stafford presented their evidence, along with their expert witnesses, and rested their case on the morning of December 16. The defense began its case on the afternoon of December 16 and went until December 18. The case went to the jury late in the afternoon of December 19, following closing arguments, and jurors returned their unanimous decision December 19.

Stafford said it took more time to present their side since they had the burden of proof and they also had six expert witnesses.

“They made it clear this was a case of not providing and following the medical and nursing standard of care,” Stafford said, “not about restraining someone’s liberty.”

Stafford also praised the jury for their work during the trial that lasted more than a week and a half.

“I’ve never seen a jury so attentive to the evidence being presented,” Stafford said. “It was clear they took their civic duty so importantly. That presented itself all the way through, including their eight-hour deliberation.”

“In our community, there are many wounded warriors that we must maintain a vision for and protect,” Arnold said. “This case, I hope, will improve medical care.”