South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

As a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawyer, I was pleased to see an article in the Wall Street Journal showing that at least one Florida hospital is actively taking steps to reduce its rate of medical mistakes. The Aug. 24 article focuses on the experience of the Sosa family of Miami, whose six-year-old daughter, Kaelyn, was left permanently brain-damaged when she was just 18 months old. Kaelyn’s mother, Sandy Sosa, took her to the emergency room after a bump on her head. Hospital staff sedated Kaelyn and put her on a ventilator to help her breathe while she underwent an MRI. Unfortunately, the tube connecting Kaelyn to the ventilator was knocked out, and hospital staff didn’t notice until Kaelyn’s brain was starved of oxygen, leaving her with serious physical and mental disabilities.

The Sosas decided not to file a Miami medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital, which agreed to provide free medical care for life to Kaelyn. But in response to that and other mistakes, the hospital, Baptist Children’s Hospital, departed from the typical hospital strategy after a serious mistake -- silence intended to prevent lawsuits. Instead, the Wall Street Journal said, Baptist Children’s openly admitted its mistake, apologized and worked hard to learn from it in order to reduce similar mistakes in the future. In fact, Sandy Sosa now serves as the community liaison for the hospital’s committee on quality and patient safety.

According to the article, the strategy seems to work. The University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, which also has an aggressive policy of learning from patient safety mistakes, said it was sued 40% less between 2004 and 2009 than it was between 1999 and 2004, even though it is performing 23% more procedures. More importantly, its policies on patient safety seem to produce fewer mistakes. For example, after hospital employees left a sponge in a patient after surgery, the hospital made a policy of X-raying all patients at risk for “retained objects,” even if a count of the objects turned up no discrepancy. In three years, this policy has turned up eight patients with an object left in their bodies after a manual count found no missing objects. All of that is despite the fact that, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Quality and Management, medical errors are actually increasing by about 1% each year.

As a Boynton Beach medical malpractice attorney, I have to chuckle at the article’s apparent conclusion -- that owning up to mistakes and taking corrective action seems to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits. Of course aggressive corrective action reduces lawsuits -- it reduces the medical mistakes that cause those lawsuits, and shows families that the hospital is serious about patient safety. In my experience, patients and their families do not look for reasons to sue; a lawsuit is a long and often emotionally difficult process with no guarantee of success.

Rather, medical malpractice victims go forward with their legal claims because medical mistakes can be extremely expensive to treat, and to prevent the same tragedy from befalling other families. For example, the physical therapy Kaelyn gets for free could cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. This article suggests that hospitals could save a lot of money in the long run -- and more importantly, thousands of lives -- by learning from their mistakes and treating injured patients with honesty and inclusiveness.

Continue reading " Miami Family’s Medical Malpractice Experience Helps Hospital Avoid More Medical Errors " »

A whistleblower Web site less than three months old has already led to 328 complaints about companies violating Florida workers’ compensation laws, the Miami Herald reported Aug. 14. The Florida Division of Workers Compensation launched its site in June, requesting that people refer companies they believe are not in compliance with workers’ compensation laws. Visitors can complain anonymously and track the progress of their complaints through a referral number that does not identify them. They may also look up their companies to see whether a complaint has already been filed.

According to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink, the site had already produced 328 referrals to companies suspected of non-compliance, including 73 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Of those referrals, 36 ended with orders from the state to stop all work, including eight in Miami-Dade and two in Palm Beach County. The state also levied more than half a million dollars in penalties -- $526,000, including $112,000 in Miami-Dade. Complaints are about companies doing business without the required workers’ compensation coverage, which includes companies that outright fail to buy insurance as well as companies hiding their non-compliance by paying employees outside an official payroll or misclassifying their employees to make their insurance rates cheaper.

As a Hollywood workers’ compensation lawyer, I am glad to see our state actively rooting out employers who fail to comply with the law. Failing to buy adequate workers’ compensation insurance doesn’t just violate the law -- it has serious negative consequences for the injured worker. By law, people injured at work give up their right to sue over the injury in exchange for the right to make a workers’ compensation insurance claim -- but they cannot do that if there is no insurance. When that happens, workers are left pretty much on their own to face six-figure medical bills and the challenge of making ends meet while they can’t work. In this way, employers that fail to meet their legal obligations victimize employees twice, because the failure to buy insurance is no fault of the employees’.

Continue reading " State Web Site Nabs More Than 300 Companies Accused of Not Buying Workers’ Compensation Insurance " »

As a Broward County injuries to minors lawyer, I was relieved to see a happy ending to a South Florida case that got national attention. Firefighters from Key Biscayne and Miami spent a tense hour Aug. 24 rescuing a three-year-old girl who got stuck in a swimming pool’s drain. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the little girl was swimming under adult supervision in a backyard pool at a condominium building on Key Biscayne when her arm got stuck. Rescue workers eventually managed to free her, but had to cut a part of the pipe and attached concrete in order to do it. According to the paper, the girl’s hand was slightly crushed, but she was not seriously injured.

It was unclear how the unnamed little girl got stuck in the drain, but the suction created by the drain kept her, and rescuers, from being able to simply pull her arm out. Instead, they tried draining the pool to relieve water pressure, then realized that pressure was not the problem and began cutting out the pipe. While the firefighters worked, the girl’s parents jumped into the pool and helped hold her head above water so she could breathe. After she was freed, she was airlifted to a hospital for further treatment.

Safety advocates told the newspaper that the case underscores the importance of a new federal law intended to prevent just this kind of accident. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act requires public pools and spas -- including apartment and condo pools like this one -- to install dome-shaped or large and flat drain covers that children cannot get their hands into. Poolsafety.gov, a government Web site explaining the law, said the suction can entrap small children, causing deaths or serious brain damage due to drowning. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 83 swimming pool entrapments between 1999 and 2008, including 11 fatalities and 69 injuries. Nonetheless, safety advocates said pools around the nation, including the Key Biscayne pool, are not complying with the law, and states have not enforced it, suggesting there may be “a huge safety problem.”

As a Boca Raton child injury attorney, I am particularly concerned about this because South Florida is full of swimming pools, many of which are not in compliance with the Act or not obligated to be. However, manufacturers of swimming pool drains and equipment, like all manufacturers, have a legal obligation to make products that are safe to use and free of defects -- or at least warn their customers about potential safety problems. And operators of public and apartment-complex swimming pools are obligated to comply with the Act. In this case, failing to fulfill those duties puts children at risk of death, which I believe everyone can agree is unacceptable. When children are hurt as a result of this negligence, they and their families have a legal right to hold the negligent people legally liable for the injuries and the often-steep financial costs they cause.

Continue reading " Safety Advocates Call for Stronger Product Safety Enforcement After Key Biscayne Girl Entrapped by Pool Drain " »

An investigation found that human error was primarily responsible for a 2007 plane crash in Fort Lauderdale, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Aug. 17. The National Transportation Safety Board made that conclusion after looking into the causes of the September 2007 crash, in which a twin-engine cargo plane crashed into the shoulder of the interstate, breaking apart. Pilot Robert Robertson survived the crash with injuries to his head, lungs, arms and legs, skidding to a halt on the pavement still strapped into his intact seat. However, the plane was destroyed.

According to the article, the NTSB concluded that the primary contributor to the accident was Robertson’s failure to position a switch properly. His twin-engine Beech H-18 had a switch allowing him to connect the right engine of the plane to either a main fuel tank or an auxiliary tank. The switch was left in between those two settings, which apparently cut the engine off from any fuel at all. As a result, the right engine lost power about 150 feet above the ground, forcing Robertson, an experienced pilot, to make an emergency landing on the highway. The investigation also found that the plane was substantially overloaded, with a cargo bin authorized to hold 75 pound stuffed with 265 pounds of shoes and clothes scheduled for deliver in Nassau.

As a Hollywood aviation accident lawyer, I know that this kind of conclusion isn’t unusual at all. Statistics from the NTSB show that the majority of “general aviation” airplane and helicopter accidents are caused by some kind of human error, including mistakes by pilots, air traffic controllers or decision-makers who authorize flying in poor weather or with faulty equipment. When these bad decisions lead to a serious crash, victims and their loved ones have the right to hold them legally responsible for the results -- including wrongful deaths and catastrophic injuries such as brain damage. Our Aventura airplane crash attorneys help victims of these serious accidents hold wrongdoers responsible for their actions and recover the money they need to pay the costs the accident caused.

Continue reading " Federal Investigation Finds Pilot Error Responsible for Fort Lauderdale Plane Crash on I-95 " »

As a Pembroke Pines car accident lawyer, I watch new traffic accident research and have written numerous times on this blog about the dangers of texting and driving. That’s why I was pleased Aug. 17 when I saw an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about a city commissioner in Parkland, who wants to make texting while driving illegal within the city limits. Commissioner Jared Moskowitz planned to propose a law to the full City Commission on Aug. 19. It was unclear exactly how the law would work, but the article did say that there would be a fine for motorists caught breaking the law.

Moskowitz said his proposal was driven by concerns about safety; he said it’s the most dangerous thing people can do behind the wheel, aside from drinking. He believes texting while driving should be illegal throughout the state, not just in Parkland. That’s a belief shared by Democratic state Senator Ted Deutsch of Boca Raton, who has sponsored similar legislation at the state level for the past two years and expects to take it up again next year. Deutsch praised the efforts, but said Florida still needs a statewide anti-texting law. Moskowitz’s colleagues were cautiously supportive, but raised concerns about the practicality of enforcing such a law. In fact, the article said Parkland city attorney Andy Maurodis is researching whether Florida cities can even make their own traffic laws.

As a Hialeah auto accident attorney, I strongly support Mowkowitz’s (and Deutsch’s) efforts. As the article notes, a recent study I wrote about for this blog found that truck drivers were 23 times more likely to crash when they were text messaging -- in large part because their eyes were off the road for an average of about five seconds while they sent and received messages. Other results showing that texting raises the chance of an accident considerably have been found in studies that focus on drivers of passenger cars. And of course, we have far too much empirical data on the dangers of texting and driving, thanks to tragic, avoidable accidents caused by texting and driving. That includes recent train crashes in Boston and Los Angeles as well as trucking accidents in St. Louis and here in Florida, where a truck driver killed a little girl when he rear-ended a school bus while using his cell phone.

Continue reading " Broward County City Commissioner Proposes Law Making Texting While Driving Illegal " »

A report by the federal Government Accountability Office says hundreds of trucking and bus companies have remained in operation despite orders to shut down, the Associated Press reported Aug. 3. The report looked at companies ordered to shut down by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for serious violations like using unsafe equipment, failing to test drivers for alcohol and drugs and operating without a license. Investigators believe that at least 20 commercial bus companies and 1,073 trucking companies evaded paying fines and meeting other legal obligations by simply starting a new company using the same contact information and employees. More than 500 were still on the road as of July, the report said.

The study was released about a year after one of the “reincarnated” bus companies was involved in a deadly accident, the AP said. A bus from Iguala BusMex Inc. blew a tire on Aug. 8, 2008, near Sherman, Texas, sending it off the highway and killing 17 people on board. Iguala BusMex was a “new” company still waiting for its federal license -- but it was run by Angel de la Torre, owner of Angel Bus Tours Inc., which stopped operating two months earlier after an unsatisfactory federal inspection. The blown tire was a retreaded tire installed on a steering axle in violation of federal law. The number of “reincarnated” trucking and bus companies may be even bigger, the GAO said, because the study looked only at exact matches between addresses and other contact information.

As a Deerfield Beach trucking accident attorney, I am disturbed that it’s so easy for companies with a record of safety violations to remain on the road. Using unsafe equipment and failing to drug-test might not sound like serious problems, but as the Iguala BusMex crash shows, even small safety violations can have deadly consequences when they affect a vehicle weighing many tons more than a passenger car. Trucking companies that send out their drivers with bad brakes or no valid license are setting up the drivers -- and everybody around them -- for a catastrophic accident. By the time these violations translate into a crash, it’s too late for the innocent people around the trucks, who are left dead or with serious, often permanent, injuries.

Continue reading " Federal Report Says Trucking and Bus Companies ‘Reincarnate’ Under New Names After Orders to Shut Down " »

A two-year-old visiting Florida with her family died Aug. 8 after an accident with an alleged drunk driver, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Aug. 9. Isabella Zepka and her family were visiting Orlando from Durham, N.C., to use a time-share and visit family. She was on her way home from dinner and Sea World on Wednesday when John Molnar, 36, ran a red light and hit the back of her father’s car. Isabella sustained serious internal injuries and a fractured skull; she was taken off life support Saturday. Her brother Alexander, 9, sustained a fractured skull from which he was expected to recover. Her father was not seriously injured.

According to the article, the Zepkas’ car was making a left turn when Molnar ran a red light from the oncoming lane. Officers measured his blood-alcohol concentration at 0.133% and 0.129% in two tests -- both well above Florida’s 0.08% legal limit. Officers also found a plastic bag full of cocaine under the driver’s seat of his car, resulting in an additional charge of drug possession. He told officers that he had had just one beer, the article said, but failed field sobriety tests. His driving record includes a license suspension for a 2008 DUI in New Jersey, as well as four speeding tickets and convictions for careless driving and failure to obey a traffic device, all since 2006.

My heart goes out to the family of this little girl. As a Hollywood car accident lawyer, I’m sorry to say that I regularly see accidents like these, in which alcohol played a deadly role. Drinking and driving may be illegal, but it happens every day in Florida and around the United States. According to 2008 accident statistics from the Florida Highway Patrol, drivers intoxicated by alcohol, drugs or both were responsible for 23.5% of all fatal accidents in the state -- nearly a quarter. This is an improvement over the numbers from four decades ago, but unfortunately, far too many drivers still underestimate the dangers of driving drunk. Until they take this threat seriously and modify their behaviors accordingly, our communities will continue to see senseless tragedies like this.

Continue reading " Toddler Dies in Orange County Car Crash Caused by Accused Drunk Driver " »

The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for the driver of a gold car believed to have caused a serious crash, Tampa Bay Online reported Aug. 10. The crash happened in Manatee County on the afternoon of Aug. 9, on U.S. 301. The FHP accident report said the unknown driver hit another vehicle headed in the same direction, causing a spinout that forced motorcyclist Gary Garrott, 21, into a median. The driver of the car apparently sped north, away from the accident, rather than stop. The FHP is asking anyone with information about a gold car with front-end damage in the region to contact them.

According to the accident report, the gold car was heading north on 301 when it hit a trailer pulled by a pickup truck heading in the same direction, causing a truck driven by Terry Boozer to spin from the right lane into the left lane. That intrusion caused Garrott to swerve away from the truck and into the concrete median, throwing him from his bike. Garrott was hospitalized with unspecified serious injuries and Boozer sustained moderate injuries. Neither was under the influence of alcohol. Law enforcement does not know whether the driver of the gold car was injured.

Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime in Florida and every other state, of course. It also has serious repercussions for accident victims, who are left without any insurance policy to collect from to pay for their injuries. If law enforcement cannot find the driver, victims must rely on any optional uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage they have purchased to cover their injuries. Unfortunately, as a Deerfield Beach auto accident lawyer, I have found that insurers resist making payments on these perfectly legitimate claims. Coverage for hit-and-run drivers is a standard part of UIM insurance, but all too often, insurers claim the driver was not uninsured, the accident was the insured’s own fault or some other flimsy reason to deny coverage. Often, it’s not until the victims hire a Plantation car crash attorney that the insurance company is willing to pay what it owes under its own contract.

Continue reading " Police Searching for Driver in Hit-and-Run Accident That Seriously Injured Motorcyclist " »

A Flagler County Sheriff’s Deputy suffered serious injuries when he was hit on his motorcycle by a semi truck, the Orlando Sentinel reported Aug. 5. Deputy Sgt. Michael Van Buren was on his way to respond to a traffic accident on Palm Coast Parkway in Flagler County when the accident occurred. His injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, but were described as serious, including possible broken bones. No injuries to the truck’s driver were reported. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.

According to the paper, Van Buren was traveling west on Palm Coast Parkway when the accident happened. The accident report said the tractor-trailer was traveling east, but preparing to turn north onto Interstate 95. The article said Van Buren’s motorcycle hit the big rig, but the accident report did not specify how exactly that happened. As a motorcyclist and a Davie motorcycle crash lawyer, however, I know that a left turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle, violating the motorcyclist’s right of way, is one of the most common motorcycle accident configurations. In many of these accidents, the left-turning driver simply doesn’t see the motorcyclist, or doesn’t see the motorcycle until it’s too late to prevent the accident. In others, the motorcyclist is going too fast for conditions.

As a Tamarac motorcycle crash attorney, I was also interested in this crash because it pitted a ten-ton truck against a motorcycle, which is tiny by comparison. The officer is fortunate that his injuries were not serious -- possibly because one or both of the motorists involved were able to think quickly. As a rule, motorcycles are outweighed substantially in accidents with cars and trucks, which is one reason why motorcycle accidents are so much more likely than car crashes to result in wrongful deaths and catastrophic injuries. Motorcyclists are also relatively unprotected, with only gear and helmets -- which are optional for most Florida riders -- between them and the pavement. In a crash with a large truck, that usually spells death or very serious injuries, such as permanent brain damage.

Continue reading " Sheriff’s Deputy Injured in Motorcycle Crash With Semi While on Traffic Duty " »

A study of long-haul truckers found that truckers were 23 times more likely to crash when they were text messaging, the New York Times reported July 27. The study placed video cameras in the cabs of more than 100 long-haul trucks over 18 months. Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute then reviewed the videos to see what drivers were doing in the moments before a crash or a near miss. They found that typically, truck drivers were looking at their wireless devices for an average of five seconds -- time when they couldn’t have their eyes on the road. According to the article, that’s enough time for a large truck at highway speed to travel more than the length of a football field.

The study did not look at drivers of passenger cars. However, the researchers said truckers display behaviors similar to those of drivers in passenger cars and the results can be generalized to them. In fact, preliminary results from a VTTI study of teenaged drivers in smaller vehicles show similar levels of risk while texting, the article said. Other studies have also found a vastly increased risk for those who text and drive. To Tom Dingus, the director of the VTTI, all that research means no one should text and drive -- it should be illegal. It is already illegal for at least some drivers in 14 states, but Florida has no law addressing the issue, aside from general prohibitions against reckless driving.

As a Coral Springs big rig accident lawyer, I would not be sorry to see laws addressing the issue of texting and driving a semi truck. Here in Florida, we’ve already seen the results firsthand in the case of the truck driver who rear-ended a school bus near Ocala, killing one girl and seriously injuring another. That driver is accused of using his phone directly before the crash. Tractor-trailers are much bigger and heavier than ordinary cars and trucks, which means they can cause serious damage in a crash, including wrongful death and permanent, lifelong disabilities. Given the seriousness of a truck crash, it’s very important that truck drivers avoid texting and any other distraction, especially when research shows such a clear risk.

Continue reading " Study Shows Texting While Driving a Large Truck Raises Risk of Crash by 23 Times " »

Six police officers suffered minor injuries in a chain-reaction crash during a funeral procession, WFTV reported August 4. The officers were riding Harley-Davidsons as part of the funeral of Bruce Rossmeyer, a fixture in the Daytona Beach motorcycle community and the owner of at least 14 Harley-Davidson stores. During a pre-service procession in Ormond Beach, six people from police departments in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and Port Orange, as well as the Daytona Beach Fire Department, were involved in a chain-reaction crash. According to a police spokesman, the riders in front braked before riders behind them had time to react, causing an “accordion” that left one officer with a limp and another with a bandaged hand.

Rossmeyer’s funeral attracted multiple bikers, in part because he was well known in the motorcycling community. Florida Today called him a fixture at Daytona Beach’s Bike Week and Biketoberfest, and WFTV said he helped make motorcycles “big again” in Daytona Beach. His Ormond Beach Harley-Davidson dealership, Destination Daytona, claims to be the largest Harley dealership in the world. In fact, Rossmeyer was on his way to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota when he was killed in an accident in Wyoming. According to Florida Today, Rossmeyer was riding in a group of several motorcyclists and trying to pass a truck when an RV moved into his lane, colliding with his bike.

As a motorcyclist and a Pompano Beach motorcycle accident lawyer, I am sorry to bid Rossmeyer goodbye. In addition to his status as a businessman and a part of the motorcycle community, Rossmeyer was known for raising millions of dollars for charities throughout Florida. If any good can come of his death, however, I hope it raises awareness among drivers of the importance of really looking for motorcycles. The article doesn’t describe or assign fault for the accident, but as a North Miami Beach motorcycle crash attorney, I know that many drivers say after an accident that they never saw the motorcycle coming. That’s especially true when the other vehicle is large like an RV, which can dwarf even a Harley. This may make the resulting accidents the drivers’ fault -- but unfortunately, motorcyclists like Rossmeyer take the bulk of the damage.

Continue reading " Police Officers Injured in Procession for Harley-Davidson Magnate Killed in Motorcycle Accident " »

A flight headed from Rio de Janeiro to Houston made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport after severe turbulence injured multiple passengers, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Aug. 3. Airport officials said 26 people of the 168 on the flight were injured, four seriously. The plane was about an hour south of Miami, north of the Dominican Republic, at 4:30 a.m. EST when it hit the turbulence, dropping suddenly and knocking people out of their seats. FAA investigators were at the airport Monday to talk to crew members and establish whether other planes in the region experienced the same turbulence.

According to witnesses interviewed by the newspaper, the plane shook for about 10 seconds and oxygen masks dropped during the rough patch of air. During that time, one woman hit the ceiling of the plane so hard that her head stuck. Another was hit by a load of cargo and knocked unconscious. A doctor traveling on the plane treated the injured, with help from a passenger fluent in both English and Portuguese, until the plane could land in Miami at 5:30 a.m. Fourteen people were taken to hospitals, while the other injured were treated by emergency personnel at the airport. According to another Sun-Sentinel article, most of the injuries related to neck and back pain.

Neither article reported whether the “fasten seat belts” sign was on in the airplane before the turbulence hit. That interests me, as a Fort Lauderdale airplane accident lawyer, because it could be an important issue if any of the passengers or crew decide to make a legal claim against the airline. According to the Sentinel, turbulence injures about 58 Americans every year, usually people who are out of their seats (including flight attendants trying to do their jobs) or not wearing seat belts. Failure by victims to wear a seat belt, after a clear warning to wear it, could be considered contributing to their own injuries. That could hurt victims’ case in any South Florida aviation accident lawsuitand reduce their payments.

Continue reading " Four Passengers Seriously Injured on International Flight After Plane Hits Severe Turbulence " »