Ex parte Affinity Hospital, LLC, etc., et al., [Ms. SC-2024-0174, SC-2024-0184, Mar. 7, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (Wise, J.; Shaw, Bryan, Mitchell, Cook, and McCool, JJ., concur; Stewart, C.J., and Sellers, J., concur in the result; Mendheim, J., concurs in the result) grants petitions for writs of mandamus filed by Affinity Hospital, LLC, d/b/a Grandview Medical Center (“Grandview”); Community Health Systems, Inc. (“CHSI”); John Kirchner, M.D.; and Southlake Orthopedics Sports Medicine and Spine Center, P.C. (“Southlake”).
The Court determines Pates’s medical-malpractice claims are barred by the two-year statute of limitations under § 6-5-482(a), Ala. Code 1975, because her legal injury – an infection allegedly caused by the defendants’ negligence – occurred in November 2020, more than two years before she filed suit in February 2023. The amputation of Pates’s leg in February 2021 was a consequence of the initial infection and not a separate legal injury that could restart the period of limitations. Ms. *24. Accordingly, the Court directs the trial court to enter an order dismissing Pates’s claims as time barred.