Eric Morris recovered $50,000 from Turnkey Medical Engineering after an MRI machine exploded while he was helping move it, but the trial court denied his motion for a new trial. During trial, the judge required Morris to sit upright or leave when headaches and nausea caused him to rest his head on the table, expressing concern that the jury might award money out of sympathy. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial. Applying the Georgia Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kesterson v. Jarrett retroactively, it held that a civil party may not be excluded from the party’s own trial merely because the party’s physical or mental condition could evoke sympathy. Courts must use jury instructions and other safeguards before restricting the right to be present. The court also held that a defense-retained physician could conduct a court-ordered examination under OCGA § 9-11-35 when the plaintiff placed physical injury in controversy; possible expert bias could be explored before the jury. Morris’s separate objection to having counsel excluded from the examination was waived because he had challenged only the physician’s independence. The court did not reach the remaining new-trial arguments because the exclusion error required retrial.