Orlando Injury Lawyer Blog

As Orlando injury lawyers handling pharmacy malpractice claims we found a recent report of pharmacy malpractice quite tragic. The incident involved a pharmacist who filled a prescription that led to the death of a Florida boy. Despite the magnitude of the loss the pharmacist will only pay a $1,000 fine, according to the agreement approved by the state board. As part of the same agreement with the Florida Board of Pharmacy, Edna Irizarry must also attend an eight-hour pharmacy course and pay about $2,460 in investigation costs.

Irizarry faced disciplinary action for processing a prescription for 3-year-old Sebastian Ferrero, who died in October 2007. Ferrero died two days after a routine test was supposed to help doctors determine why the boy’s growth was below average. Instead of receiving the prescribed dose of 5.75 grams of the amino acid arginine, officials said the Hospital Outpatient Pharmacy gave him more than 60 grams.

Understandably, the little boy's family found the action by the State of Florida to be inadequate. How can this slap on the wrist have any meaning when this malpractice and recklessness caused the death of an innocent child? Certainly, such insignificant action by the boards that regulate medicine and pharmacy have proven that individuals must act themselves to receive any justice for medical or pharmacy malpractice. Refusing to be discouraged, the family started a foundation in the hopes of preventing similar future tragedies.

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Tim Russert’s death has reminded us that heart disease and heart attack is a major health risk. As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers, we see many heart attack cases. Some people, like Tim Russert, receive no warning sign, the medical personnel do all that they can and unfortunately the person dies from the heart attack. In those situations, we share with the families who seek our help, that no medical malpractice occurred-that the health care providers did all that anyone could have expected.

The most tragic circumstances I find are where the patient needlessly dies from a heart attack. I have seen too many heart attack cases where the signs and symptoms of the heart attack were obvious-yet the diagnosis is missed or no timely treatment is provided. At Orlando Regional Medical Center and Florida Hospital, patients coming into the emergency department with classic cardiac complaints of chest pain, shortness of breath or abnormal electrocardiograms are not always properly diagnosed and treated.

When Orlando residents are fortunate enough to have the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and get to Orlando Regional Medical Center or Florida Hospital, they should receive appropriate and timely care. When they do not, these hospitals should acknowledge their wrongdoing. Sadly, they do not. Instead, like other health care providers, these hospitals try to make excuses to escape responsibility.

In medical malpractice cases, no patient stands a fighting chance unless they have a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice and has a long history of trial success. These cases rarely settle quickly, if at all. When going up against Orlando Regional Medical Center or Florida Hospital, patients and their families must be prepared to go to war!

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An injury lawsuit we recently came across claims that a patient fell off his doctor’s exam table because the staff failed to provide assistance. As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers, this unfortunate incident is a reminder that patient must look after their own interests. In today’s healthcare industry, busy medical practices are not immune from accidents.

Whether this lawsuit fairly seeks to hold the medical clinic responsible is yet to be seen. There are many important facts that have not yet been disclosed. While we have represented patients who were injured when medical or hospital staff failed to protect them from falls, some patients should be expected to step down from an examination table without much difficulty.

Among the relevant issues in these cases are the age of the patient, the general health and condition of the patient, the height of the table, as well as the length of time the patient was lying down before trying to move off the table. Certainly, patients should be able to expect a helping hand or proper supervision where needed.

In this medical malpractice case the patient claims significant orthopedic injury from his fall. Whether there was any fault on the part of the medical staff in this case, the patient went to his doctor for help with one condition and left with many more medical problems.

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As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers we have found that too many innocent patients could have avoided injury from medical malpractice had they been less forgiving of their doctor’s obvious shortcomings. Often patients see red flags at their doctor’s office yet fail to find a different doctor. This becomes tragic when medical malpractice follows a series of signs that were simply ignored. So, we have found the following three steps to positively assist patients in finding the right doctor.

Interview-Just as you would with any other professional, interview your doctor. Make an appointment to meet and chat with a doctor that you are considering to care for you or your family. Or go for a first visit that involves a minor problem “to see what you think.” You do not want to be blindly choosing a doctor when you have a serious medical condition.

Check them out on the Internet-People can easily Google or Yahoo! Any doctor they are considering. Within a few minutes you may find the doctor’s website, news stories about him, good or bad, and there are websites with objective information, including medical malpractice information. Evaluate his training and board certification at the American Medical Association’s website. Several Web sites such as RateMDs.com and HealthGrades.com also have doctor ratings.

Check out the staff- Remember, you're not just choosing a doctor. You're choosing his staff as well. They're more important than you might think. When you're feeling desperately ill, you're at their mercy to squeeze you into a packed schedule. A good doctor who has a rude receptionist, sloppy nurse, or careless assistant spells trouble and frustration.

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Florida limits the amount of damages in medical malpractice cases to compensate for injury and death. Of course, this effects no one unless they suffer from a serious injury due to medical malpractice. Unfortunately, when that happens most of our clients are dismayed and shocked that our state legislature determined arbitrary values for the loss of one’s health or life.

Recently, an Orlando circuit court judge found these limits in medical malpractice cases to be unconstitutional. However, it will take some time for Florida appellate courts to consider this issue. Meanwhile it is interesting to note that few Floridians are aware of these limitations or that organizations such as the exist which have spent decades backing state and federal legislation to prevent innocent injury victims to have a jury consider the real value of their injury claims.

According to legal scholars the pendulum is moving even more pro-defendant in recent years. This of course is happening because big corporations, the insurance industry and the medical associations have used scare tactics to take away the people’s right to full and fair justice. Unfortunately, as Orlando injury lawyers, we know that corporate America will continue to work to deprive citizens of their right to hold corporation accountable; rather, than working harder to keep people safe in the first place.

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Many folks are afraid of dentists, but few would expect their dentists to dance their way into their sinus cavity. As Orlando malpractice lawyers we were amazed at the report of a dentist dancing to the song “Car Wash” while he was extracting a patient’s tooth. In the process, he lost the inch-long drill bit, which punctured the patient’s sinus cavity and came to rest by her eye socket, according to her lawsuit.

The patient underwent emergency surgery when her dentist was unable to remove the drill bit. Following the surgery, the woman continues to suffer facial swelling, nerve damage and has chronic infections because of the bacteria that seeped into her sinus cavity.

This dental malpractice case began when the patient went to her dentist for pain in a molar started getting worse. An exposed nerve made it sensitive to heat and cold and a root canal had been ruled out as a possible option, according to her lawsuit. The dentist gave her some novocaine and while he was drilling to break the molar into quadrants before the extraction, the patient heard a snapping sound. All the while according to her lawyer, the dentist was dancing to the beat of the song on the radio in the dental office.

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Medical malpractice happens often enough, but the circumstances surrounding some malpractice cases demonstrates the lack of any concern for human life. Here, a 43 year old woman died of a perforated bowel after writhing in pain on the floor in an emergency department for 45 minutes as hospital employees refused to help her. Rather than try to assist her, this patient was discharged and left on a bench outside the hospital screaming in pain.

County officers who were called to respond took the woman back inside and tried to get a nurse to help, but according to the police report, the nurse did not show any concern. Officers then made a computer check and found that the patient was wanted for a parole violation. As the officers put her in a wheelchair to handle the outstanding violation, the woman became unresponsive and died in the emergency room.

The woman’s family appears justified in claiming that their mother was not treated like a human being-that she was treated like an animal. Obviously, more folks need to understand that all of us must hold these hospitals accountable for such disregard for human life. Otherwise, there is no deterrent to such reckless conduct. As a footnote, the hospital is being downsized into an urgent care center after failing to meet federal standards for patient care.

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As Orlando injury lawyers a recent medical malpractice verdict is another wake-up call for unsuspecting health care consumers. In this case, the patient, a middle-age, active man went to the emergency room after experiencing chest pain and collapsing at his home. At the hospital, the attending doctor prescribed acid-reflux medication and sent him home an hour later. When the patient saw his regular doctor two days later, he was diagnosed with a heart infection. Unfortunately, the patient had neither stomach upset nor an infection. Rather, he had an aortic rupture, a tear in the heart's major artery and died two days later.

The lawsuit highlighted the sad truth that this death was preventable had proper, timely health care been provided. Of course, it took a month long trial, before the jury was permitted to deliberate. Fortunately, the jury agreed that folks are entitled to better health care than what this patient received and awarded the family compensation for the significant economic losses that result when the family bread-winner is taken from them.

As a footnote to this verdict, the state Department of Health investigated the medical care and found no violation of the standard of care. The state closed its investigation more than a year before the medical malpractice trial began. This simply reinforces the importance of health care consumers protecting themselves and when serious injury results-to hold careless doctors accountable for their actions.

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A Florida doctor charged with medical malpractice and disciplinary allegations by the state faces a panel of peers who will examine his alleged mishandling of more than 10 cases, including what court documents describe as ''numerous patients deaths.'' However, the proceedings are secret. The public can't attend. When the panel reaches a decision, that, too, will be secret. If the peers decide against their report will go only to state regulators, who will conduct more closed hearings.

Even as state and local governments boast about how they are making healthcare information more available to the public, expanding websites with tons of data on hospitals and pricing, this case involving surgeon Alex Zakharia shows how much about a doctor's performance still remains hidden.

In 2004, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment giving the public access to knowledge about botched care -- including the results of hearings like this one. But the amendment has been mired in court cases. Very little, if any, information has reached the public.

Sidney M. Wolfe, a physician with the Washington-based Public Citizen consumer group, says the healthcare industry often protects physicians. ``Doctors like to protect other doctors.''
Because problem doctors frequently slip from state to state or hospital to hospital, a federal law established the National Practitioner Data Bank, which compiles doctors' disciplinary actions, large malpractice judgments and hospital dismissals. That broad data bank is available only to select healthcare professionals. The public is denied access.

While most people want to believe and trust doctors, it is obvious that there are some who do not deserve such trust. Sadly, the medical association has such clout in Tallahassee and nation-wide that health care consumers may never have access to the information they need to be able to make an informed decision about the doctor they choose. Of course, this only hurts consumers and the majority of good doctors.

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As Orlando medical negligence lawyers, we must prove that our client’s received negligent or substandard medical care and suffered damages as a result. The standard of care which applies is a national one. Other states, however, continue to cling to the rule that the injured medical malpractice claimant must prove a violation of a local standard of care. That the defendant failed to do what others in the community would have done.

Throughout these states a movement is slowly building to abolish century-old medical malpractice laws that judge a doctor's performance by the medical standards existing in the physician's community. Those laws, known as "locality rules," are still on the books in 21 states. They were originally designed to protect rural doctors who lacked access to medicines and training available in big cities. But plaintiff lawyers, courts, medical professionals and a handful of legislators are calling for their demise, arguing that all present-day doctors -- regardless of where they live and practice -- have equal access to quality training and the latest medicines, and should therefore be held to the same standards.

Critics claim that locality rules unfairly dictate who gets to testify in medical malpractice cases. Plaintiffs lawyers dislike them because they mandate that only locals can be used as expert witnesses -- a tough feat in small towns where doctors are reluctant to testify against colleagues. Some judges have said the rules unfairly disqualify otherwise qualified medical experts.

Proponents of locality rules argue that they are still a necessity, particularly to insulate doctors in rural areas that have limited medical resources available. Locality rules take that into account and shield them from liability.

Locality rules vary from state to state. For example, Idaho and New York use the strictest rule, known as the "same community" standard, which bases the standard of care on what doctors in the same town are doing. Three states -- Arizona, Virginia and Washington -- use a statewide standard of care. Eleven states, including Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina, use a "same or similar community" standard, which allows for out-of-state doctors to testify in malpractice cases if they can show that their medical community standards are similar to the defendant's.

For the sake of health care consumers everywhere, these locality rules should be abolished. Medicine is no longer practiced in isolation. Doctors can stay current with their practice or specialty by simply going online. What’s more, for most cases, there is no reason why a patient in one state should be entitled to better care than one in a different state.

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Medical malpractice may well be the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States according to the Millennium Research Group (MRG). This global authority on medical technology market intelligence has conducted a detailed and thorough analysis of the acute care clinical information systems (CIS) market and finds that a major driver in the US is the demand for improvement in patient safety.

Medical errors are the fifth-leading cause of deaths in the US, with up to 98,000 deaths annually. According to the new report entitled US Markets for Acute Care Clinical Information Systems, hospitals are adopting CIS to help them provide adequate, timely care and reduce the frequency of preventable errors.

Medical errors in the healthcare system arise from miscommunication, physician order transcription errors, adverse drug events, or incomplete patient medical records. Generally, medical errors are caused by overcrowded, understaffed clinical areas with complex workflow patterns, and incomplete or inefficient communication between clinical areas. Through the use of a CIS, professionals within each clinical area are able to access and use information pertinent to a patient's medical profile and history. As a result, CIS can effectively help prevent errors and enhance patient safety.

The CIS market -- comprised of radiology information systems, pharmacy and medication management information systems, cardiovascular and cardiology information systems, laboratory information systems, emergency department information systems, and critical care information systems -- was valued at over $900 million in 2005. By 2010, revenues in the CIS market will exceed $1.5 billion.

A CIS is a computer-based inpatient information system designed for collecting, storing, manipulating, and making available clinical information that is important to the health care delivery process. It provides access to a patient's electronic medical record-clinical data storage technology that encodes the patient's previous medical history, responses to medication, test results, and current treatment. Certainly, every reasonable technological advance which increases patient safety should be considered. Too many medical malpractice cases result from errors that were easily avoidable.

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A medical malpractice jury in Broward County awarded more than $2 million to a woman who had been a ballerina for 15 years and had a bright future ahead of her. Unfortunately, this teenager Katie Shreffler began to suffer pain in her hip, and underwent surgery. Ten years later, this South Florida woman is still in pain, walks with a crutch and has needed more surgery to correct the damage from the original procedure, according to court records.

Interestingly, the surgeon has become a prominent and well-respected physician. Dr. Marc Philippon, according to his clinic's website, is ''one of the world's leading orthopaedic hip surgeons'' and a consultant to all the major U.S. professional sports leagues. He has treated pro golfers Greg Norman and Peter Jacobsen, hockey player Mario Lemieux, pro football player Priest Holmes, and baseball player Louis Castillo, according to that site.

So how did this medical malpractice occur? In medical malpractice surgical cases, the most effective claim is that the surgery which went awry, was unnecessary-that the standard of care was violated when the surgeon decided to perform the operation. In so doing, the usual defense to a surgical claim of medical malpractice-that the bad result was an unfortunate, unavoidable complication, can not be used. Obviously, if the surgery was unnecessary, then the doctor should never have subjected the patient to the risk of these complications.

That is how this claim was presented. The plaintiff’s attorneys argued that Dr. Philippon performed an unnecessary surgery. They said Shreffler was among the first patients Philippon ever performed the procedure on, and he used the teen for practice. Certainly, this presents a persuasive and compelling argument and undermines the typical defense tactics.

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Florida Hospital lawyers have urged the Florida Supreme Court to delay implementation of the state constitutional amendment that gives patients the "right to know'' about past mistakes made by doctors and medical facilities. These medical malpractice lawyers also asked the justices to reverse two separate appellate court rulings that struck down a law the Legislature passed to implement the amendment and limit the records of "adverse medical incidents'' that patients can obtain.

The amendment is one of two voters passed in 2004 after they had been placed on the ballot through citizen initiatives organized by trial lawyers who represent patients in medical malpractice cases. The other amendment bars doctors with three malpractice judgments against them from practicing.

The Florida Supreme Court is deciding these issues as a result of disagreement between appellate courts as to whether the amendment applies to past records or only those created since voters approved the measure in November 2004. The amendment itself does not specifically say if it's prospective or retroactive. If the amendment applies only to new records, those created after the 2004 election, that would result in a delay of many years before the measure gives patients any meaningful help in its intended purpose of letting them check on the past performance of doctors and hospitals.

Now that the Court has heard argument, we will await its decision. Hopefully, the true intent of the voters will prevail and healthcare consumers will soon be able to benefit from the availability of important information about their doctors and hospitals.

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As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers, we continue to hear medical malpractice insurers claim that there is a “medical malpractice crisis.” Of course, there is no basis or evidence to support these claims. A recent report by a former insurance commissioner bears this out. Former Missouri Insurance Commisioner Jay Angoff has reported that the nation’s 15 leading medical malpractice insurers have unnecessarily driven up health care costs by falsely claiming that a medical malpractice crisis exists and “price gouging” physicians.

These statistics undermine the insurance industry’s claim that medical malpractice lawyers and ever-increasing medical malpractice claims payments have been causing a crisis. Mr. Angoff noted that insurers’ net paid claims actually fell 14.7%, before accounting for inflation, to nearly $1.15 billion in 2006 from more than $1.34 billion in 2000. In addition, the insurers’ incurred losses fell 48% to $1.35 billion in 2006 from $2.6 billion in 2003, according to the report. Nine insurers in the group reported drops of more than 50% of incurred losses, and two reported reductions of more than 80%. Moreover, between 2003 and year-end 2006, the insurers’ surplus grew 43%, the report stated.

Of course, despite this economic success, medical malpractice insurers did not cut-back on premiums to doctors. Rather, medical malpractice premiums continued to rise sharply from 2000 through 2006. Insurers reported $2.38 billion of net written premiums in 2006, a 24% increase from $1.92 billion of net written premiums in 2000.

According to Jon Haber, chief executive officer for the AAJ, “Medical malpractice insurance companies have been price-gouging doctors, padding their pockets with excessive premiums and driving up the cost of health care.” “Cynically, these same insurance companies have been blaming high premiums on a so-called ‘malpractice crisis’ that doesn’t exist. We have an insurance crisis, not a medical malpractice crisis.”

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As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers we are disappointed with the Florida Supreme Court's ruling, holding that hospitals cannot be held liable in medical malpractice cases for failing to ensure doctors with staff privileges meet state financial responsibility requirements. The unanimous ruling disapproved of decisions by three district courts of appeal on that issue. In doing so, the Court adopted the position of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Previously, courts had interpreted the financial responsibility law to hold hospitals accountable for staff doctors who failed to obtain the necessary medical malpractice insurance or otherwise satisfy his or her minimum financial obligations. However, Justice Barbara Pariente writing for the Court held that the state law requiring doctors to establish financial responsibility as a condition of staff privileges does not create a duty on the part of the hospitals to enforce that mandate.

Instead, it's up to physicians to comply or else face sanctions including possible license revocation, she wrote. Also, insurance companies must notify the state if a doctor's policy is canceled or not renewed.

This is truly a sad day for Florida medical malpractice victims. As a practical matter if hospitals have no responsibility to ensure staff doctors comply with financial responsibility laws to obtain or keep staff privileges, there is no one looking out for hospital patients. This decision overturns the well-reasoned opinion of the Fifth District Court of Appeal that found the obvious intent of the Legislature to permit injured parties to collect at least $250,000 from hospitals that fail to enforce the requirement.

The case of Stuart and Lena Horowitz against Plantation General Hospital for medical malpractice included a $859,200 against Dr. Derek V. Jhagroo, failed attempts to collect that judgment because he left the United States, had no property here and no medical malpractice insurance. Without the ability to at least hold the hospital liable for the $250,000 minimum required to obtain or hold staff privileges, the plaintiffs will likely recover nothing for their losses.

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As Orlando medical malpractice lawyers, we find the recent medical malpractice trial of a woman who lost her fingers and feet after complications of tummy tuck surgery both encouraging and disappointing. Through their $30-million verdict, this medical malpractice jury held both the admitting hospital and doctors liable for the injury and loss. That is encouraging, but due to Florida’s "Good Samaritan" law the matter is not yet resolved. Indeed, it appears that one doctor who participated in this medical nightmare may well escape the jurors’ judgment. That is the disappointing aspect of this medical malpractice lawsuit.

In the continuing fight to avoid liability for medical malpractice, insurers, hospitals and doctors have been successful in passing legislation that protects emergency room doctors from malpractice awards as long as a jury finds they did not act recklessly. So, a victim can no longer hold an emergency doctor responsible for serious injury or death caused by carelessness and unreasonable conduct during an “emergency” visit.

In this case, while finding fault, jurors determined that one of the two doctors did not act with reckless disregard. Under the Good Samaritan law that may well permit that doctor to escape responsibility for his actions.

Another aspect of this case worth noting involves the time of the medical malpractice. As we have discussed in a previous post, medical malpractice appears to occur more on weekends. In this case, the plaintiff’s troubles culminated on Super Bowl Sunday 2001 when an ambulance carried her to Memorial Hospital in Tampa. She had undergone a tummy tuck 20 days earlier to repair abdominal muscle damage from three caesarean sections. Blood and fluid had collected in her wound. Her fingers were blue. Her surgeon was out of town and another doctor provided her care. Of course, this set the stage for the tragedy that eventually occurred.

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While we face great bias in favor of doctors and hospitals in our medical malpractice trials, a recent study may help to get the word out that overcrowded hospitals trying to streamline care and cut costs put their patients at risk every day. A study by two Boston hospitals finds preventable mistakes including medication errors, nerve injuries and infections.

The study, published in the May issue of the journal Medical Care, found that the top goals of hospitals, (1) to cut costs and (2) improve patient safety are inconsistent and work against each other. What is amazing to me is that it actually took a study by health care providers to determine that you can not focus on saving money without sacrificing patient care and safety. As this study points out when hospitals cut costs it usually decreases staffing. Specifically, the study found a 10 percent increase in the patient-to-nurse ratio at one of the four hospitals which led to a 28 percent increase in adverse events.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital reviewed 6,841 individual patient records over 12 months from a number of hospitals and found 1,530 adverse events. Obviously this study demonstrates that hospitals are big business, with a focus on the bottom line rather than on patient care.

While this study alone will not counteract the bias that we will face when we select our next medical malpractice jury, this study and similar information may begin to help educate a future jurors. Certainly, throughout our trials, we focus our juries attention on the choices of the defendant health care providers which reflect haste, inattention and carelessness as a result of inadequate staffing or other cost-saving measures.

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