Orlando Medical Malpractice Lawyers Stonewalled
Recently, Orlando medical malpractice lawyers filed a lawsuit against Orlando Regional Medical Center to find out what happened to their client. Almost nine months ago, Claudia Meja went into Orlando Regional South Seminole to give birth to her son Mathew. She was kept in the hospital for complications and, twelve days later, was moved to Orlando Regional Medical Center. After being moved, she underwent a quadruple amputation. The hospital told her she had a flesh eating bacteria, streptococcus, and toxic shock. But she wanted to know more specifics about what had happened, including how, exactly, she had caught streptococcus.
When the hospital wouldn’t give her any more info, she sought legal counsel who directed a letter to under Florida’s “The Patients Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents Act.” That would seem an appropriate course of action. Certainly, one would assume that becoming a quadruple amputee sure sounds like an adverse medical incident to me. And the hospital’s response?
A letter saying that “Ms. Mejia’s request may require legal resolution.” In other words, “sue us if you want to know.” So her counsel has now filed suit against the hospital to find out why she lost her limbs. This case should be monitored to determine whether Amendment 7 has any teeth. From our experience, hospitals are raising work-product privilege objections in an effort to deny discovery of adverse incident reports. The applicability of this privilege may need to be addressed by the Florida Supreme Court. As we understand the issues briefed in the Buster case presently before the Court, work product privilege was not relied upon in the trial court and therefore will not likely be addressed.
