Miami Injury Lawyer Blawg

Let's hope the defeats for Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry do not stop. Governor Perry is an advocate of Medical Malpractice reform and limiting patients rights. To that end, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a former medical malpractice Defense lawyer, blocked key provisions of Texas' new law requiring a doctor to perform a sonogram before an abortion, ruling the measure violates the free speech rights of both doctors and patients.

As reported by the Associated Press, Judge Sparks upheld the requirement that sonograms be performed, but struck down the provisions requiring doctors to describe the images to their patients and requiring women to hear the descriptions.

The law made exceptions for women who were willing to sign statements saying they were pregnant as a result of rape or incest or that their fetus had an irreversible abnormality. Sparks questioned whether the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature was trying to "permanently brand" women who are victims of sexual assault.

The law -- one of dozens of anti-abortion measures that advanced through state capitals across the United States this year -- takes effect Thursday. The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights had sued to block it.

Opponents argued that requiring doctors to describe a fetus' features would force them to say things against their will and would violate medical ethics requiring doctors to respect a patient's autonomy and act in the patient's best interest.

The Texas Medical Association, normally a supporter of Governor Perry, opposed the law because it dictated when a doctor must perform a procedure and how the doctor must deal with a patient. While a pre-abortion ultrasound is routine, it is not considered medically necessary.

Sparks wrote that forcing doctors to discuss the results with a patient who may not want to listen "compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen."

Sparks was particularly troubled by the requirement that victims of sexual assault or incest sign statements attesting to that fact to get around the provision. That would require women to disclose "extremely personal, medically irrelevant facts" that will be "memorialized in records that are, at best, semi-private," Sparks wrote.

"(It) is difficult to avoid the troubling conclusion the Texas Legislature either wants to permanently brand women who choose to get abortions, or views these certifications as potential evidence to be used against physicians and women," Sparks wrote.

Sparks also struck down several enforcement penalties for doctors who faced losing their medical license and possible criminal misdemeanor prosecution if they did not comply.

The ruling is a "huge victory for women in Texas and a clear signal to the state Legislature that it went too far when it passed this law," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The group said it had already received notice the state plans to appeal.

Governor Perry was critical of Tuesday's ruling. Perry had made the law one of his top priorities for the 2011 legislative session.

Winning a Personal Injury lawsuit can be difficult. A Personal Injury lawyer and his client will ride many emotional waves during the course of the litigation, and hopefully after an exhausting battle you get to the conclusion and the Jury announces a verdict for your client. However, If the defendant was uninsured the most difficult part of the ordeal is just beginning-collecting on the Judgment. If the Defendant was an uninsured Miccosukee Tribe member collecting on that paper judgment may be more difficult than winning the underlying lawsuit.

As reported by the Miami Herald, In early October 1998 Carlos and Liliana Bermudez drove with their baby son Mathew across the Tamiami Trail to fish off a pier in Marco Island.

As they headed back that night, Tammy Gwen Billie, who was driving west in an Acura Legend crossed over the center line and slammed into the Bermudezes' Toyota Cressida, near the Miccosukee Indian reservation. Liliana was killed as a result of the crash. Tammy Gwen Billie, whose three-year-old daughter, Lydia, was a passenger in her car, had been driving under the influence of cocaine and other drugs, according to police and toxicology reports. She eventually pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in that case -- after she was charged again on a separate drug-related driving offense in 2001 -- and served eight years in prison.

In 2009, more than a decade later, Bermudez won a $3.17 million Wrongful Death verdict. The court entered judgment against the driver, Tammy Gwen Billie, and her father, Jimmie Bert, the owner of the uninsured Acura. But the father and daughter, both Miccosukee Tribe members, have refused to pay despite admitting fault at trial and losing all appeals, saying they don't have the money.

For the Bermudez family, it has been virtually impossible to collect their Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury award, even when the defendants admit they have some assets.
In a court filing, Tammy Billie's father, Bert, said he has received between $35,000 and $40,000 in quarterly distributions from the Miccosukee Tribe since 2007, and that he earned another $118,391 in 2009. In a separate filing, Billie, said she received between zero and $4,000 in quarterly distributions over the same period, and that she earned another $7,305 in 2009.

The Bermudezes' civil case -- resulting in a rare monetary judgment against the two Miccosukee Indians -- reflects the extreme difficulty of suing members of a sovereign Indian nation.

In most litigation, the Miccosukee Tribe and its members cite sovereign nation status as a defense, saying they cannot be sued in U.S. courts or served with complaints or subpoenas on or off the reservation.

The legal strategy, used by the Miccosukees and other Indian tribes, usually wears down their opponents in court.

Those quarterly distributions likely came from the Miccosukee Tribe's gambling profits at its casino operation in West Miami-Dade. The Internal Revenue Service, in an unrelated case, is investigating the tribe's distribution of tens of millions of dollars a year to its 600 members, alleging that the Miccosukees have failed to report that income and withhold taxes, as required by law. The IRS estimates that each tribe member receives about $17,000 per quarter in gambling profits, though other sources familiar with the tribe's finances say the payout is considerably higher. The Miccosukee Tribe counters that its members do not owe taxes on those distributions.

For Carlos Bermudez, 43, and his son, Mathew, now 14, the delay in getting compensated has dragged out their suffering.

Last month, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Genden sanctioned the two Miccosukee defendants and their Miami attorney, Michael Tein, citing their "abuse of the discovery process" as Rodriguez attempted to uncover potential sources of income, property and other assets to satisfy his client's multimillion-dollar judgment. This legal process in referred to as discovery in aid of execution. A Plaintiff is not allowed to inquire as to a Defendant's assets prior to securing a verdict. However, once the Plaintiff prevails, and a Judgment is entered, the Plaintiff is allowed to conduct discovery in hopes of finding assets to collect on that Judgment.

Continue reading "A Grieving Family Is Left Trying To Collect On A Judgment" »

If you think that Medical Malpractice is a problem in Florida, wait until you see what is happening in China.

In 2006, the last year the Health Ministry published statistics on hospital violence, attacks by patients or their relatives injured more than 5,500 medical workers.

In June of 2010 a doctor was stabbed to death in Shandong Province by the son of a patient who had died of liver cancer. Three doctors were severely burned in Shanxi Province when a patient set fire to a hospital office. A pediatrician in Fujian Province was also injured after leaping out a fifth-floor window to escape angry relatives of a newborn who had died under his care.

In 2010 The New York Times published a story depicting the need for police officers in hospitals to keep disgruntled patients and their relatives from attacking the doctors.

Over the past year, families of deceased patients have forced doctors to don mourning clothes as a sign of atonement for poor care, and organized protests to bar hospital entrances. Four years ago, 2,000 people rioted at a hospital after reports that a 3-year-old was refused treatment because his grandfather could not pay $82 in upfront fees. The child died.

2 days ago friends and relatives of a patient who died on the operating table marched on Nanchang Hospital No. 1 with pitchforks and clubs. Hospital staff members learned that a mob of about 100 people was heading their way with crude weapons and took it upon themselves to mount a defense. Photographs and video posted on a local website showed men in white coats, apparently doctors, and T-shirted security guards brandishing what looked like oversize baseball bats. Although nobody was seriously injured in Tuesday's melee, the incident highlights a greater problem. To that end, medical personnel advocates complain that the more violent incidents are staged by hired thugs, paid by families of the deceased in hopes of winning compensation from the hospitals. Sometimes the protesters are from the same village or are semi-professionals in causing trouble. The Chinese have even coined a word for the paid protesters: yinao, meaning "medical disturbance." I know what you are thinking, and NO, they are not Medical Malpractice Lawyers.

"It has become a very sophisticated system for chasing profits. Whenever somebody dies in a hospital, the yinao will get in touch with the family and offer their services in exchange for 30% to 40%," said Liu Di, who is setting up a social network for medical professionals. Again, I know what you are thinking, and NO, they are not Medical Malpractice Lawyers.

Zhang Yuanxin, who is a medical malpractice lawyer, said it was difficult to sue for medical malpractice, even in the most egregious cases, and that tempted people to take matters into their own hands.

"This is the direct result of the lack of rule of law and the lack of a well-established social welfare system," Zhang said. "Conflicts like these are inevitable and there will be many more if people can't solve their problems through the law."

With overcrowded public hospitals, China has experienced a number of well-publicized scandals in which people were overcharged for unnecessary or dangerous treatments. In the 1990s, at a time when local governments were selling blood for profit, more than 1 million people contracted the AIDS virus through transfusions at public hospitals. Often victims in these cases have had little resource but to protest or petition -- an archaic process that involves going to Beijing to file grievances with higher authorities.

Doctors and nurses say the strains in the relations between them and patients' relatives are often the result of unrealistic expectations by poor families who, having traveled far and exhausted their savings on care, expect medical miracles.

Almost half the nation's doctors have no better than a high school degree, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Many village doctors did not make it past junior high school.

Primary care is scarce, so public hospitals -- notorious for excessive fees -- are typically patients' first stop in cities, even for minor ailments. One survey estimated that a fifth of hospital patients suffer from no more than a cold or flu. Chinese health experts estimate that a third to a half of patients are hospitalized for no good reason.

Once admitted, patients are at risk of needless surgery; for instance, one of every two Chinese newborns is delivered by Caesarean sections, a rate three times higher than health experts recommend.

Patients appear to be even more likely to get useless prescriptions. Drug sales are hospitals' second biggest source of revenue, and many offer incentives that can lead doctors to overprescribe or link doctors' salaries to the money they generate from prescriptions and costly diagnostic tests. Some pharmaceutical companies offer additional under-the-table inducements for prescribing drugs, doctors and experts say.

Doctors seem as unhappy as patients. They complain that they are underpaid, undervalued and mistrusted. One in four suffers from depression, and fewer than two of every three believe that their patients respect them, a survey by Peking University concluded in October.

In June, more than 100 doctors and nurses in Fujian Province staged their own sit-in after their hospital paid $31,000 to the family of a patient who died. The doctors were upset because after the patient died the relatives took a doctor hostage, setting off a bottle-throwing melee that injured five employees.

Like some other cities, Shenyang has been seeking ways to ward off disturbances, including setting up hospital mediation centers. Still, the city reported 152 "severe conflicts" between patients and doctors in 2009.

At Hospital No. 5, the memory of a January attack remains fresh. After a doctor referred a patient with a temperature to a fever clinic -- standard practice in China -- frustrated relatives beat the doctor and several nurses with a mop and sticks.

Continue reading "Doctors Attacks Highlight Medical Crisis In China" »

We have all been passed by Tractor Trailers as if we were not even on the road. Unfortunately, most police officers do not enforce Florida's "3 foot law". Failure to follow the law led to a tragic death on Saturday afternoon.

Randolph Oller, a 48 year old Melbourne man was working on his car on I-95 Saturday afternoon when he was killed. Oller, was on the east shoulder working on his car, when troopers say he fell into the outside lane for an unknown reason and was hit by the right rear tire of a tractor-trailer driven by 35-year-old Jesus Rodriguez, of Hallandale.

This accident occurred at approximately 4:30 P.M., and visibility was not an issue. To that end, Jesus Rodriguez had an duty to keep a proper lookout, and to pass Mr. Oller at a safe distance. Had Mr. Rodriguez operated his vehicle in accordance with Florida's "3 foot law" this accident could have been avoided.

Florida Statute 316.083 states:

The following rules shall govern the overtaking and passing of vehicles proceeding in the same direction, subject to those limitations, exceptions, and special rules hereinafter stated:
(1) The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall give an appropriate signal as provided for in s. 316.156, shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance, and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle. The driver of a vehicle overtaking a bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle must pass the bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle at a safe distance of not less than 3 feet between the vehicle and the bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle.

Whenever Governor Scott talks about Insurance Reform, you cannot help but feel that this is bad for accident victims, and good for the insurance industry. The governor says the reforms are needed because of Insurance Fraud. Imagine the irony in the governor wanting to limit insurance fraud.

At the center of the debate is Personal Injury Protection Insurance(PIP)
Florida is one of 10 so-called no-fault accident states. Most other states, 38 in all, have what is known as a tort system, which requires motorists to purchase bodily insurance coverage. A tort system holds at-fault drivers liable for the economic and non-economic damages they inflict on others. In no-fault states,drivers are required to purchase PIP insurance, and they are responsible, regardless of fault(no-fault) for their own medical bills(economic damages) up to $10,000.00. It is within PIP that the abuse in the system lies. To that end, the many commercials we hear all day long from certain medical facilities that claim you may be entitled to $10,000.00, lead people to these facilities in search of their $10,000.00. Unfortunately, the $10,000.00 are not for the accident victim, but rather for payment of medical bills.

Florida Law requires owners of motor vehicles to maintain PIP(Personal Injury Protection) and Property damage liability(PD). There is no requirement that drivers purchase Bodily Injury Liability Insurance(BI). Thus the majority of drivers in Florida do not carry insurance to compensate accident victims for their injuries-again florida is in the minority-as 80% of the states require a motorist to carry Bodily Injury Insurance.

As reported by the Miami Herald, neither Scott nor any Cabinet member called for outright repeal of the state's 1972 no-fault auto insurance law, but they agreed changes, perhaps even dramatic ones, must happen.

Scott said he wants McCarty to consult with key lawmakers and push for reforms to be taken up in the next legislative session that begins in January. But by then, McCarty said, more premium increases are likely. Premiums have already increased more than $900 million since 2008.

More than a decade after a scathing grand jury report exposed the extent of car insurance fraud in Florida, McCarty acknowledged that a series of minor tweaks by legislators have failed to combat the problem.

By staging accidents, ordering needless medical tests and other abuses, McCarty said, scammers have driven up car insurance premiums for everyone.

"There's a group of people -- fraudsters and hucksters -- who have perfected the system of finding the weak points, and they're taking advantage of that," McCarty said.
The notion that PIP fraud is mostly a Miami-area problem is a "myth," McCarty said.
Tampa has become the epicenter of staged car accidents in Florida, with 739 such crashes in 2010, a five-fold jump over the 125 reported in 2008, according to McCarty's report.

Between 2008 and 2010, McCarty said, total PIP benefits paid increased from $1.4 billion to $2.3 billion, a 70 percent increase. The money comes from premiums paid by all drivers.

Total PIP-related lawsuits more than doubled in the same period, from about 7,500 to nearly 19,000. However, this is a misleading statistic because lawsuits are necessary to enforce payment of legitimate medical bills. For example, United Automobile Insurance Company routinely denies payment of ALL medical bills. Yet this company has gone without repercussions from the State.

For every $1 motorists pay in premiums, McCarty said, the insurance industry spends $1.40 in losses and expenses.

"Obviously, that is not sustainable," said McCarty, who predicted more rate increases or an exodus of insurers from Florida. Again, Insurers are threatening to leave the state-sound familiar(Homeowners,Medical Malpractice). Either give us everything we want or we are leaving.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said if another package of reforms can't curb fraud, it's time to abolish PIP coverage.

Continue reading "Governor Scott Wants More Automobile Insurance Reforms " »

Two triathletes died last week during the swim portion of a Triathlon on the hudson river in New york city. The athletes went into cardiac arrest during the swim portion of the event and died. Cardiac arrest, (also known as cardiopulmonary arrest or circulatory arrest) is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively.

A cardiac arrest is different from (but may be caused by) a heart attack, where blood flow to the muscle of the heart is impaired.
Arrested blood circulation prevents delivery of oxygen to the body. Lack of oxygen to the brain causes loss of consciousness, which then results in abnormal or absent breathing. Brain injury is likely if cardiac arrest goes untreated for more than five minutes. For the best chance of survival and neurological recovery, immediate and decisive treatment is imperative.

Cardiac arrest is a medical emergency that, in certain situations, is potentially reversible if treated early. When unexpected cardiac arrest leads to death this is called sudden cardiac death (SCD). The treatment for cardiac arrest is cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to provide circulatory support, followed by defibrillation if a shockable rhythm is present. If a shockable rhythm is not present after CPR and other interventions, clinical death is inevitable.

The risk of sudden death in a triathlon is 1.5 deaths per 100,000 participants compared with 0.8 deaths per 100,000 participants in a marathon.

As reported by the New York Times, a 2010 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association showed that 13 of the 14 deaths in triathlons from 2006 to 2008 took place during the swim legs. Autopsies on nine of the victims found that seven had heart abnormalities, which researchers think were exacerbated by the stress of swimming in open water.

"What do you do if your goggles come off? If you bump into a boat? If someone swims over you? If any of these things happen in the open water and you're not prepared for it, you can panic and can get into real trouble."

"So many things can go wrong in an open-water swim," Dr. Stuart Weiss, the New York City Triathlon medical director, said last week. "There's some combination of water, adrenaline, pushing yourself hard, and all these things somehow work together to put people into an abnormal heart rhythm."

Organizers of the race said last week that they were considering requiring open-water swim certifications for 2012 entrants, as well as certification of a recent medical checkup showing a clean bill of health. But a spokesman indicated that USA Triathlon was less far along on such considerations.

"The topics of athlete certification, as well as its feasibility, and the current requirements for swim starts continue to be discussed and evaluated, and we will consider all options moving forward," the spokesman, Chuck Menke, said.

Cook said that swim certification was necessary.

"You need some form of certification that says this person can swim in open water for, say, one hour," he said. "If they don't pass it, they shouldn't be let in the race."

The rising numbers of untrained first-time triathletes comes as part of the sport's phenomenal growth in recent years. USA Triathlon membership has grown from 16,000 members in 1993 to 140,000 in 2010.

The surge reflects a change in perception. Not long ago, the notion of doing a long-distance swim, followed immediately by long-distance cycling and running, seemed impossible for all but the most elite endurance athletes.

But now triathlons are often seen as the province of weekend warriors, albeit especially fit ones. That in turn has attracted first-time triathletes who often lack specific training. The number of one-day memberships in USA Triathlon, which one needs to compete in its sanctioned events, rose to 326,732 in 2010 from 100,000 in 2000.

Triathlon organizers are also aware of the dangers, typically assigning more lifeguards than the USA Triathlon minimum of one per 50 participants (one per 30 for ocean swims). They also are moving away from the especially chaotic mass starts. At the New York race, swimmers started in groups of 20 every few seconds, although that change was made because of choppy water.

"USA Triathlon-sanctioned events must meet the requirement of a minimum of three minutes between start waves and no more than 150 athletes per wave," said Kathy Matejka, the event services director of USA Triathlon. "Time-trial starts, which include fewer than 20 athletes starting at shorter intervals, also are permitted."

Continue reading "Triathlons Need Better Safety Rules" »

Florida Personal Injury Lawyers know that Injury Lawsuits often become a battle of experts. The issues which are most commonly contested are those of Causation-whether the subject accident caused the injury in question, and Permanency-whether the injury resulted in a permanent injury.

For the injured Plaintiff the testimony on the above issues is typically presented by the treating physician. In contrast, the defendant will retain and pay an expert to examine the Plaintiff and render opinions. Specifically, Florida Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 1.360(a)(1)(A) allows the defendant in a personal injury case to have a qualified expert of its own choosing perform a medical examination on the plaintiff with regard to the injury or injuries in controversy. This type of examination has come to be referred to as a "compulsory medical examination," or "CME."

In light of the fact that the opinions and testimony of the defense hired doctor are so critical, it is imperative to discover as much information as possible about the defense doctor and to videotape the actual examination.

Florida Law allows the Plaintiff's attorney to inquire as to the amount of money the particular doctor earns by conducting these examinations, the number of times he has examined individuals on behalf of the particular defendant and/or defendant law firm, the number of depositions given, trial testimony, etc. It is imperative to secure this information to show the doctor's bias.

Likewise, it is also important to videotape the examination. To that end, without videotaping the examination it is difficult to challenge the doctor on his examination, and what the actual Plaintiff's complaints were on a given day. It is not unusual for a defense doctor to testify that the Plaintiff did not have complaints on a given day, to minimize the complaints or the findings during an examination.

The video shown below is an actual video from a Compulsory Medical Examination.

The video makes it clear why it is so important to videotape these examinations.

As a Miami Bicycle Accident Lawyer and Cyclist, I can conclude that the collarbone is the most frequent bone to be broken in bicycle accidents. For cyclists, collarbones are made to be broken because during a crash the first part of their body to hit the ground is often a shoulder, elbow or wrist. The force can be transmitted up the arm to the collarbone, which is one of the body's most vulnerable bones.

Elite cyclists are even more at risk because they carry as little upper-body muscle as possible, providing little protection to a bone that is already close to the surface.

The clavicle(collarbone) is an S-shaped long bone that acts as a strut to attach the shoulder to the axial skeleton. Its most anterior apex attaches to the sternum via the sterno-clavicular joint and at the posterior apex it broadens and flattens to attach to the acromion via the acromio-clavicular joint. The bone acts as an attachment point of several muscles such as the sternocleidomastoid, pectoralis major, and the sternohyoid muscles medially and on the lateral side the anterior deltoid, trapezius and the pectoralis major's clavicular head.

As written by the Boulder Center For Sports Medicine, with respect to characterizing clavicle fractures we tend to divide the bone into thirds with a medial, middle and lateral portions.

Fracture to the medial third of the clavicle are rare and make up less than 3 percent of breaks, while the lateral third is the second most frequently involved portion and accounts for 15-30 percent of all fractures.

The middle third of the clavicle is the narrowest section of the bone and lacks the muscular and ligamentous attachment of the ends. These facts when taken together are thought to make it more susceptible to injury and it is indeed the most frequent site of fracture (70-80 percent of all clavicle fractures). See video below which illustrates injury and treatment options.

Displacement is a term that means the bony ends of a fracture do not align and these mid-shaft fractures tend to have high rate of displacement with an incidence found to be between 48-73 percent. This high rate is likely related to the muscular attachments at the ends of the clavicle pulling the fracture fragments of bone away from their normal anatomic alignment, along with the actual weight of the upper extremity itself contributing to this distraction in some cases.

In cases of clavicle fracture it is extremely important to assess for concomitant injuries to the lungs, the surrounding neurovasculature, and other musculoskeletal issues such as associated rib fractures, AC joint separation and other scapular injuries to name a few.

In these injuries the clinician's goal from a management standpoint should be to heal the clavicle in a fashion that recreates its function as a solid support for the shoulder girdle to elicit the return of pain-free range of motion, normal strength and to avoid bony non-union and malunion (bone fragments heal together but there is persistent pain and or loss of shoulder function). The means of accomplishing this goal by bringing about the least risk and harm to the patient is ideal.

To operate or not?
Historically in regards to midshaft clavicle fractures it was thought that the best approach was non-operative management even in cases of large displacement with damage to vasculature/nerves, open fractures (bone fragments pierce the skin) and painful non-unions being the most common indications to proceed with operative intervention. Over the last decade this approach has come under increasing scrutiny, with newer studies of completely displaced fractures showing much higher patient dissatisfaction rates than previously thought in those treated with non-operative management. These rates were secondary to a markedly increased rate of non-union than formerly documented (up to 21 percent) as well as malunions causing considerable shoulder girdle dysfunction. Taking this into account with the improved surgical fixation techniques and much lower complication rates over the last decade, it has made operative interventions much more viable from a management standpoint.

The approach to the patient with clavicle fracture should be on a very individualized basis with age, activity level, personal preferences, fracture type and monetary/insurance concerns playing important roles in the decision process.

Surgical Errors are a leading cause of Florida Medical Malpractice Claims. Palm Beach County Judge Nelson Bailey became a statistic for medical errors in October 2009, when he was admitted to Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

As reported by the Sun Sentinel, Judge Bailey underwent elective surgery for his diverticulitis.
The last thing he expected was that the surgeon who removed a section of his intestines would leave behind a sponge as big as a washcloth that would fester inside his body for five months and cause him agony before it was detected. However, that was not the only error.

While he was recuperating from surgery, Judge Bailey said a doctor prescribed a drug to lower his blood pressure. But the hospital pharmacy sent the wrong medication, and the nurse administered it without checking the label, the judge said.

"My heart was racing incredibly,'' he said. "The bells started going off at the nurse's desk.''

Judge Bailey said he survived that with no long-term effects and thought he was on his way to recovery. He was released from the hospital, but the discomfort in his belly didn't get any better.

"It got to the point where I was having more pain than I had gone in to have the surgery for in the first place,'' he said. "I was just fading away. I was losing weight. Some of the lawyers that work with me thought I was dying.''

Bailey had several X-rays and CT scans before one finally revealed the sponge in March 2010. "I got the call from both my surgeon and my gastrointestinal doctor five minutes apart saying, 'There's a sponge in you. It needs to come out right now,' " he said.

The surgeon, Dr. David Kurtz of West Palm Beach, offered to do it at no cost, Bailey said, but the judge declined and instead went to Cleveland Clinic in Weston, where doctors also removed a portion of his intestines that had been perforated by the sponge.

Bailey hired a medical malpractice lawyer to pursue legal action against Kurtz, and the two radiologists who reviewed the scans but did not spot the sponge. The judge reached a confidential settlement with the radiologists in July.

Good Samaritan settled with Judge Bailey last year. State insurance records show the hospital paid $650,000.

During Bailey's surgery, hospital staff recorded in notes that they performed three counts of the tools and sponges going in and coming out. "Obviously, the count was wrong,'' the judge said.

Good Samaritan has since invested in new technology that uses specially tagged sponges and a wand that can be waved over a patient to ensure nothing is left behind.

Continue reading "Palm Beach County Judge Is Victim Of Medical Malpractice" »

Medical Malpractice following a motorcycle accident rendered Raul Otero, a 20 year old, a quadriplegic. Otero had survived a bad motorcycle accident -- doctors amputated his left leg above the knee and removed his spleen. However, due to a medication error,
Raul 's life is now spent in bed or specially designed wheelchairs because his brain was so badly damaged that he cannot walk, speak, or follow simple commands.

As reported by the Sun Sentinel, the malpractice occurred in April 2003 at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Following the motorcycle accident, Otero was alert and preparing to be released to a rehab center when hospital staff took him for an MRI.

Otero became agitated, and a doctor gave telephone orders for a powerful drug, in a dosage that "was sufficient to paralyze the patient completely, making him unable to move or breathe on his own," according to state records.

The drug, in combination with other medications Otero had been given at Memorial, caused his heart to stop beating normally.

"I heard, 'Code Blue, MRI' and I began running and screaming, 'Something happened to my son!' " recalls Otero's mother, Ana Delgado. "A nurse told me that his heart stopped, and they revived him. He was in a coma."

Otero was left a quadriplegic. He had just turned 20. His mother gave up her job as a hairstylist to be a full-time caretaker, and her marriage to Otero's father crumbled under the strain of their son's tragedy, ending in divorce, she said.

Otero is incontinent and can only eat food that is liquified in a blender. He responds to familiar voices with his eyes and can laugh, but his only other verbal communication is an occasional moan.

With the help of a Medical Malpractice Attorney, Proceeds from a multiple-defendant lawsuit help pay for Otero's care.

Lawton Tang, the doctor who ordered the medication and his employer, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, settled for $2 million.

The South Broward Hospital District, which owns Memorial Regional, agreed to a $2.2 million settlement.

The district uses Otero's case "as a teaching tool ... to improve care,'' said spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin. It also has incorporated more patient safety procedures, such as bar code technology on patient ID bracelets that alerts staff to risks and side effects of medications, she said.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice Leaves 20 Year Old Boy A Quadriplegic " »