In a ruling dated October 28, 2026, the Georgia Court of Appeals directed the trial court to enter a $3 million damages judgment against the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, reversing a previous reduction of the family’s $37 million jury verdict to $2 million. A couple in Georgia, US, has secured a higher compensation judgment after an appeals court revisited a case involving the death of their three-year-old son during hospital treatment. The ruling, published by Justia in Warren et al. v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, addresses how state law limits compensation in cases involving public institutions. It does not restore the original jury award or reinstate every claim brought by the parents.
The case centres on the treatment of the couple’s son, identified in the judgment as B.W., at Augusta University Medical Center in 2016. His parents, Bryce Warren and April Bradshaw, took him to the hospital on June 23 that year after noticing an abdominal mass and consulting physicians in their hometown of Moultrie, Georgia. During the first week of chemotherapy, his tumour reportedly decreased in size by 40%, offering some initial encouragement to his family. Doctors began administering allopurinol on July 4, 2016, to manage tumour lysis syndrome, a complication that can occur when cancer cells break down and release substances that affect the body’s organs, according to the appellate judgment. A wound nurse recommended a dermatology consultation on July 5, but the court record says the physicians did not arrange one until July 12. The allopurinol was discontinued on July 12.
The parents were told that the cancer was “99 percent curable” and that the child needed surgery to insert a port for chemotherapy, according to the court’s account. They initially believed he might have a blockage. Instead, doctors diagnosed him with stage-four Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The child was moved to the paediatric intensive care unit following surgery. However, his condition subsequently deteriorated, leading to the medical care that became central to the lawsuit. The following day, the child began experiencing skin sloughing, in which the skin peels away. During that interval, the child received seven additional doses of allopurinol. The dermatologist ultimately diagnosed Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, severe conditions that can cause extensive skin damage and are commonly associated with medication reactions or infections. The judgment also records that the child developed other serious complications, including sepsis, a urinary infection, skin lesions and fluid accumulation around the lungs.