South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A Broward County teenager and her family made headlines Oct. 5 when they won $4.3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. According to an Oct. 5 article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Kroll family sued doctors at Coral Springs Medical Center for allegedly misdiagnosing a virus that affected their daughter Haylee when she was just a newborn. Now 15 and a sophomore at Deerfield Beach High School, Haylee has vision problems, a learning disability and permanent cirrhosis of the liver attributed to the illness, called an enterovirus, that affected her as an infant. The medical center was not a defendant in the case, but the jury found two doctors, Jose Colindres and Sedigheh Zolfaghari, liable for Haylee’s injuries. Two other doctors were found not liable.

The enteroviruses are a group of viruses with effects ranging from the common cold to polio, meningitis and other serious illnesses. They are a serious threat to newborn babies who have not yet fully developed their immune systems. The first sign of trouble for the Krolls was when Haylee developed bruises and jaundice; a few days later, she had a brain aneurysm. They said doctors at first told them not to worry, then said to expect Haylee’s death. They contended in their suit that doctors failed to run blood or liver tests that could have helped them diagnose the enterovirus sooner, helping them to avoid the permanent damage to Haylee’s body. The case was first filed when Haylee was around two years old, but was only decided now because of scheduling issues and a 2007 mistrial.

The Sun-Sentinel offered a video interview with Haylee and her mother, Cynthia Kroll:
 

The $4.3 million the family won may seem exceptionally large to some observers. But as a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice attorney, I am not surprised by such a verdict in this type of case. Medical malpractice claims must cover all of the costs of the injury, including all past and future costs of medical treatment, over the victim’s entire lifetime. Unfortunately, brain injuries like Haylee’s will never go away -- they will always affect their victims to some degree, and likely always need some amount of extra medical attention. For the same reason, Haylee will always struggle with her vision and learning problems -- that is, she is permanently disabled. The $4.3 million judgment covers all of these injuries and others, as well as compensation for her family’s suffering.

Continue reading "Family Wins Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Over Failure to Diagnose Newborn’s Virus" »

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Posted In: injuries to minors , medical malpractice

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As a Deerfield Beach medical malpractice attorney, I have followed with interest the case of Stephanie Kuleba. The Boca Raton teenager died in 2008 at the age of 18 from a rare but serious reaction to anesthesia used in her breast implant surgery. Now, according to a Sept. 27 article from the Associated Press, recently obtained documents show that the Florida Department of Health has cleared the two doctors involved, surgeon Steven Schuster and anesthesiologist Peter Warheit, citing “insufficient evidence.” Parents Joanne and Tom Kuleba are working to continue that investigation, and have also sued the doctors for medical malpractice.

Stephanie Kuleba died of a condition called malignant hyperthermia, which interferes with the body’s ability to supply oxygen and regulate body temperature. It is triggered by routine use of general anesthesia, but only in the relatively small number of people who are genetically susceptible to malignant hyperthermia. When doctors notice a patient under anesthesia displaying symptoms of the condition, they can treat it by administering a drug called dantrolene. The Kulebas contend that Schuster and Warheit took too long to notice that Stephanie was suffering from malignant hyperthermia, and administered too little dantrolene when they did notice. She died of cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.

The Kulebas are fighting privacy rules and red tape to reopen the investigation with more information. But as a Hialeah medical malpractice lawyer, I am glad that they also have a concurrent malpractice lawsuit. While an administrative or criminal investigation can bolster the evidence in a lawsuit, they are completely separate cases. The existence or outcome of one has no effect on the others. In fact, while administrative and criminal probes may bring wrongdoers to justice, only a civil case can compensate families financially for the expensive medical treatment that many victims of malpractice need. Even if the Kulebas or other families in their terrible position can’t get an investigation opened by the state, they can still demand justice through a civil lawsuit.

Continue reading "Doctors Cleared of Wrongdoing in Death of Teenager from Reaction to Anesthesia " »

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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" »

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The mother of a 12-year-old boy who died at a state-run group home for kids has sued, the Miami Herald reported May 20. The lawsuit by Martha Quesada alleges that her son, Denis Maltez, was given too many psychiatric medications and not properly monitored by doctors. Maltez, who had severe autism, was on an outing with the state-funded Rainbow Ranch group home in 2007 when he died of serotonin syndrome, a rare but life-threatening reaction to an overdose of drugs or combination of drugs that includes many psychiatric medications.

Maltez had violent outbursts, including an attack on his sister that led Quesada to put him in the group home. On the day of his death in May of 2007, he had gone out with other kids from the home to get haircuts, but became violent with group home staffers. He became unresponsive after staffers restrained him on his stomach inside their van, then died. The next month, Rainbow Ranch was closed by the state.

After Maltez arrived at Rainbow Ranch, the Herald said, he was switched to the on-staff psychiatrist there, who saw Maltez once during his year at the home. That doctor, Steven Kaplan, put Maltez on four drugs: two antipsychotic drugs, a tranquilizer and an anti-seizure drug that can be used as a mood stabilizer. The lawsuit alleges that these drugs were used as a chemical restraint to control his behavior and caused him to sleep through school. During his year at the home, teachers sent Maltez to the hospital because of over-medication concerns. The anti-seizure drug was reduced on the second hospital’s recommendation, but increased again six months later. Maltez was also the subject of an anonymous call to the Florida Department of Children and Families child abuse hotline suggesting he was over-medicated.

Doctors consider serotonin syndrome a type of poisoning. It’s caused by excess production of a brain chemical called serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, sleep, metabolism and appetite. That excess production is caused by too many drugs or the wrong combination of drugs that affect brain activity, including antidepressants, opioids, central nervous system stimulators, some street drugs and certain herbs and amino acids. Symptoms include tremors and muscle contractions, elevated heart rate, sweating, confusion, agitation and hallucination.

Though a lawsuit’s complaint only tells one side of the story, these facts seem right on target for a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit. The symptoms of serotonin toxicity could easily be mistaken for bad behavior, especially in a child who staffers knew to be aggressive and may not have been able to communicate well. If Maltez really was over-medicated and under-supervised, his family would have a strong case for their Miami medical malpractice wrongful death claim.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents children and adults throughout South Florida who were seriously hurt or even killed by the negligence of a medical professional. If you believe you or a loved one suffered an injury or illness because of bad decisions by doctors and others, we would like to help. Our Cooper City medical malpractice lawyers have more than 25 years of experience helping seriously injured people win the money they need for medical treatment, living expenses and compensation for an injury, disability or wrongful death. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please contact us online or call our main office in Broward County at (954) 431-8100 today.

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Posted In: medical malpractice , wrongful death

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As a Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer, I was interested to see that South Florida was the subject of a May 20 Time magazine story about the cost of health care. As the president begins to look at reforming medical malpractice laws, the magazine pointed out that Miami has the highest health care costs of any major city, according to one study, spending 20% more than the national average. The magazine gave several possible reasons for the problem, including South Florida’s very high rate of uninsured doctors.

The article said a full one-third of doctors in Miami are uninsured, a situation that most hospitals and some states outright forbid. (I wrote about this last year, after a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article on the subject. The number is almost as high here in Broward County, where about a quarter of doctors are uninsured.) Because these doctors could lose personal assets in a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit, the magazine said, they practice “defensive medicine,” meaning they order tests and hospitalization that probably aren’t necessary, just to be safe. As a result, Miami-Dade has more MRI machines than Canada and one of the nation’s highest hospital readmission rates. The situation is complicated by rampant Medicare fraud and a lack of primary-care physicians that drives patients into the arms of specialists.

While not surprising, this issue just underscores the importance of carrying medical malpractice insurance. The article notes that a history of bad medical care in Florida has made malpractice insurance very expensive in this state. As an attorney who also carries malpractice insurance, I can sympathize -- but I disagree strongly that not carrying any insurance at all is a good answer.

Uninsured doctors in Florida are required to keep no more than $100,000 on hand in case they do get sued; they are free to hide the rest under the names of their spouses and children. That $100,000 may be enough to cover some medical mistakes, but healthcare expenses can rise above six figures very quickly. In the most serious cases, they can rise to seven figures. That means patients who are injured by uninsured doctors could be stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills because of a doctor’s mistake, even after a successful Deerfield Beach medical malpractice lawsuit. (The same is true with medical malpractice damage caps.) Meanwhile, insurance companies, whose prices are the underlying problem, see no negative effects at all.

If you or a loved one is the victim of a serious medical mistake in South Florida, our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, would like to help. Based in Hollywood/Pembroke Pines, we serve clients throughout South Florida who lost a family member or were seriously hurt by the carelessness of a doctor, hospital or other medical professional or institution. In a Palm Beach medical malpractice lawsuit, you can win the money you need to pay medical bills, make ends meet if you cannot work and compensate you for any disability or wrongful death. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please call us at (954) 431-8100 or contact us through the Internet today.

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The family of a woman who died in a Brevard County psychiatric facility believes there’s more to her death than they’ve been told, the Orlando Sentinel reported May 5. LaWanda Smith died in 2005 at Circles of Care in Melbourne, where she was being treated for schizophrenia. Officially, her death was caused by a blood clot in her lungs that had traveled from an area of unexplained trauma on her right leg. But a former nurse at the facility alleges that workers allowed Smith to suffer for ten minutes after she collapsed before anyone called 911.

The nurse, Martin Yesowitch, says he was called to help move Smith after she had collapsed. According to official records, she developed trouble breathing after she was given a drug for nausea. When Yesowitch arrived, he found her lying on the floor with a distraught mental health technician. That technician, Megan Lushefski, said she had repeatedly asked Smith’s nurse and others for help, but was ignored. After about ten minutes, they called Yesowitch for help. He took Smith’s pulse and immediately called for emergency help, a call he says was heard by several nearby health care professionals. Unfortunately, it was too late; Smith was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The next day, Yesowitch claims, he was instructed by supervisors not to say anything. He defied that instruction by reporting the death to the county Medical Examiner’s Office, the Florida Department of Health, the Agency for Health Care Management and, eventually, the Smith family. The two health care agencies are investigating the incident, but the Brevard County State’s Attorney’s office has closed its investigation, saying evidence did not support a criminal charge. The Smiths also may not pursue a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit, because only spouses, children and dependents may file such a claim for wrongful death in Florida, and LaWanda Smith was single. With their legal options limited, the Smiths are hoping that state agencies will reveal the full story and take any appropriate disciplinary action.

A medical malpractice lawsuit is supposed to help families in situations like this, where authorities either cannot or will not act. Smith’s death, unfortunately, falls into a huge loophole that removes legal liability for medical professionals who negligently cause the deaths of unmarried adults with no children, or whose children are adults themselves. If state agencies take no action against the workers who allegedly let Smith die, those workers may be left with no accountability for any crime or unprofessional conduct.

Families of medical malpractice victims in Florida who do qualify may file a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical professionals whose negligence caused a death. Spouses and children under age 25 of medical malpractice victims may claim the cost of the shoddy medical care and funeral costs, as well as compensation for the loss of the victim’s income and their own grief, pain and loss of companionship.

If your family has suffered a death like this, our law firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. To tell one of our Coral Springs medical malpractice lawyers about your case and learn more about how we can help, please contact us online or call (954) 431-8100 today for a free, confidential consultation.

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The Florida Board of Medicine revoked the license of an abortion doctor who ignored his patient so long that she gave birth to a very premature child, who was then thrown into the trash the Associated Press reported Feb. 6. The board found that Pierre John-Jacques Renelique had committed medical malpractice, failed to keep accurate records and delegated medical tasks to non-medical employees at his clinic in Hialeah. His license was revoked, and the Miami-Dade State’s Attorney’s office is considering whether to bring criminal charges.

The baby’s mother, Sycloria Williams, was 23 weeks (just under six months) pregnant and intended to get an abortion when she arrived at the clinic. However, the doctor was not there when she arrived at 9:30 a.m., despite the fact that he had given her drugs the day before to start the procedure. After undergoing more preparation and waiting about four hours, Williams gave birth to an extremely premature baby girl. The complaint against Renelique alleges that a clinic employee who was not a doctor then put the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red biohazard bag and threw them in the trash, where police found the child dead a week later. An hour later, Renelique arrived and tried to start the abortion, only to discover that there was no fetus.

This story is attracting a lot of attention because it involves the contentious issue of abortion. As a Florida medical malpractice attorney, however, I’m interested in the medical negligence aspects of the case. In addition to the apparent negligence involved in the case itself, I wonder about the timing of the disciplinary case. Readers may not have noticed that this incident took place more than two years ago, in 2006 -- but Renelique’s license has only just come up for review. Under those circumstances, it’s easy to wonder how many other Florida doctors are still practicing despite serious charges or pending disciplinary hearings against them.

We go to our doctors trusting that they have the training, skills and compassion to give us the best care they can. Most doctors are worthy of that trust -- but when they’re not, they can seriously harm their patients. Mistakes in surgery or medication, failure to diagnose a fast-moving disease and hospital-acquired infections affect hundreds of thousands of patients every year, killing them or leaving them permanently disabled. When doctors provide care that falls so far below basic medical standards, they have committed medical malpractice and are liable in any South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit their patients may file.

If you believe you or someone you love is a victim of a careless doctor, Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. Our Miami medical malpractice lawyers represent victims of medical mistakes throughout the state of Florida. To talk to us about your case and your options at a free consultation, contact us online as soon as possible.

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A Feb. 7 report by the Lakeland Ledger said that involuntarily committed patients regularly slip away from four hospitals in the greater Tampa area before they can be stabilized or even examined. The article focuses on patients brought to hospitals under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows patients to be involuntarily committed and examined for up to 72 hours if they are believed to be mentally ill and a threat to themselves or others. The majority of the Tampa hospitals the newspaper examined had no serious problem with escapes, called “elopements,” the paper said. But four hospitals, all owed by private health system HCA Florida, routinely had one escape every month or two. At one hospital, the problem was so bad that the hospital hired private security to patrol its emergency room, a contract that has since been canceled.

The escapes are a problem because a patient must be violent, suicidal or otherwise a threat in order to be “Baker Acted.” The article says most escapes are resolved without violence -- but in one case, a patient escaped twice and ended up in a standoff with police that killed both him and a sheriff’s deputy. After that incident, a spokesperson for HCA Florida told the Northwest Florida Daily News that “we don’t lock people up.” But an expert on the Baker Act disagreed in the article, pointing out that the law gives health care organizations the right to restrain people who pose an escape risk. Patient advocate Judy Turnbaugh of NAMI Pinellas County had another theory: Hospitals that don’t want the costs of caring for medically uninsured patients turn a blind eye when they try to escape.

Regardless of whether the cause is economics or bad decisions, it’s clear that this is a problem. People are hospitalized under the Baker Act because there’s evidence that they may commit suicide, overdose or cause serious harm to others. Failure to adequately supervise such a patient might not be a crime in Florida, but it’s a highly foreseeable risk. It is also medical malpractice, or psychiatric malpractice, when the hospital or staff members had a provider-patient relationship with that patient. If a hospital allows a patient to escape and commit suicide, or hurt others, the victims and their families -- including the family of the escaped patient -- have the right to pursue a Florida medical malpractice lawsuit against that hospital.

At Cohn, Smith & Cohn, we help clients throughout South Florida who have lost a loved one or been seriously hurt by the mistakes of health care professionals. Our experienced Miami-Dade medical malpractice lawyers have a strong record of successfully recovering the money our clients need to pay new medical costs related to their injuries and compensate them for a loss in the family or a permanent injury. If you or someone you love is a victim of psychiatric malpractice or any other kind of medical malpractice in Florida, we’d like to hear from you. To set up a free consultation with us today, please contact us online or call us at (954) 431-8100.

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A woman in Brooksville, outside Tampa, has sued several medical providers who failed to diagnose her husband's infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) -- an increasingly common skin infection that doesn't respond to penicillin and can be fatal if left untreated. According to Hernando Today, the man saw his doctor about the infection in July, but was given antibiotics and sent home without a culture to diagnose the infection.

Several days later, he entered the hospital, where tests showed he had MRSA, but neither he nor his doctors were told, and the infection wasn't put on his chart. He was sent home with antibiotics that controlled the MRSA until September, when he was readmitted to the hospital for uncontrolled diabetes. It was not until the next day that a doctor diagnosed the man's septic (toxic) MRSA and sent him to intensive care. There, he went into cardiac arrest and died the next day. His widow sued the hospital staff and the man's doctors for medical malpractice under the Florida Wrongful Death Act.

Unfortunately, Florida medical malpractice lawsuits having to do with MRSA are more common than you might think, because carelessness in a medical setting is often responsible for MRSA. In fact, the infection is sometimes called "health care associated MRSA" because it occurs mostly in hospitals and medical centers-- places with large groups of people in close contact, many of whose immune systems are already depressed. A report by the Chicago Tribune in 2007 called the infection "rampant" in hospitals, saying 1.2 million people per year get the infection and about 48,000 die. Hospital staffers who do not wash their hands often enough can easily carry MRSA from an infected patient to an uninfected patient. In fact, studies have found that 12 to 15 percent of hospital staffers are carriers.

In this case, the lawsuit is alleging that the hospital was negligent in failing to diagnose the infection -- not that it gave him the infection. Failure to diagnose may not sound as serious as actually giving a patient a new infection, but as this case shows, it can have extremely serious consequences. Time is important in diagnosis of many diseases, because catching it early vastly improves the patient's chance of successful treatment. Failure to investigate clear signs of a serious problem is a medical mistake, just like failure to prevent infection or leaving surgical equipment inside a patient.

If you believe you or someone you love is a victim of this type of bad medical care, Florida law gives you the right to sue the wrongdoer for financial compensation. In a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice claim, you can win money for costs like new treatment caused by the mistake, physical pain, emotional suffering and the lost quality of life caused by a permanent disability or losing a loved one. To speak with one of our experienced Coral Springs medical malpractice lawyers, please contact our firm online for a free consultation.

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A woman in Jacksonville blames emergency medical personnel at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center for leaving a knife blade in the back of her neck for the past three years. According to Tampa Bay's WTSP, Edith McQueen was attacked by another woman with a knife three years ago and went to the medical center for help. Medical records there show that she was treated for a stab wound, but doctors did not find the blade. She had headaches over the next three years, but it was not until she had an x-ray in preparation for an MRI test that she discovered that the blade was still in her neck. The x-ray may have saved her life, in fact, because an MRI machine uses powerful magnets that would have attracted the knife, possibly pulling it through arteries in her neck.

McQueen has an attorney, who alleged in the article that "basic care was overlooked" by the emergency room staff. Specifically, he said he believes the emergency room should have x-rayed McQueen. This is one definition of medical malpractice -- failure by a doctor or other medical professional to provide care that meets basic standards. However, the article also says that she may not have a case, thanks to Florida medical malpractice laws. The article does not specify which law might bar her claim, and unfortunately, as a South Florida medical malpractice lawyer myself, I know there are several laws that may stand in her way.

Thanks to a series of "tort reform" efforts, Florida has complex medical malpractice laws. They include limitations on how much compensation plaintiffs may recover and on the fees Florida medical malpractice attorneys may charge. In addition, people who want to file a malpractice suit in Florida must follow complicated notification rules before they can file their claim. That includes providing a verified medical expert opinion and waiting for informal discovery and investigation by the defendant's (doctor or hospital's) malpractice insurer. All of this takes time, of course, which matters because there is also a statute of limitations -- a deadline by which you may sue. For Floridians over the age of eight, that's two years from the date of the injury or the date it was discovered, but in any case not more than four years after the date of the injury.

Our Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice attorneys try to make the process easier on our clients by taking care of these details, but no attorney can provide extra time. And time may be what McQueen needs in order to preserve her case. Medical malpractice reform laws have a worthwhile goal -- to keep doctors in the State of Florida -- but all too often, they're hijacked by special interests whose real goal is to preserve profits by protecting careless doctors and organizations from the consequences of their actions. The earlier we can begin a case, the better our chances of securing the money our clients need to alleviate the effects of a medical mistake that has changed their lives forever. If you believe you've been hurt by medical malpractice in South Florida and you'd like to speak with us about your legal options, please contact us today for a free consultation.

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A recent article in the Florida Sun-Sentinel drew readers' attention to an extremely important tool offered by the state: An online database of information about doctors. The Florida Department of Health's Division of Medical Quality Assurance offers a searchable database providing disciplinary and background information on a wide variety of health practitioners, including professionals like pharmacists or midwives as well as a variety of conventional doctors' specialties. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation offers a different database allowing Floridians to search for lawsuit settlements or jury verdicts against a subset of licensed medical professionals (as well as attorneys).

Why should you bother? Well, as the Sun-Sentinel's article points out, more than an eighth (13.5%) of the doctors in South Florida have settled or lost a medical malpractice case, and 3.9% of Florida doctors overall have been disciplined by the state Board of Medicine. That's just a handful of Florida's more than 60,000 doctors -- but it's a handful that many people would like to avoid. This tool gives consumers a way to identify and avoid medical practitioners with a history of medical malpractice lawsuits, criminal convictions or disciplinary trouble. It's also a good way to look into the professional's education, which can affect some consumers' confidence.

This is especially important in light of the fact that Florida allows doctors to practice without any medical malpractice insurance at all, as long as they post a sign and promise to pay $250,000 in any lawsuit. As I posted in August, this has helped make South Florida the capital of uninsured doctors, with more than a third of the doctors in Miami-Dade going without insurance. Without malpractice insurance, these doctors usually won't be able to pay a legal judgment over the $250,000 limit, which leaves the patients they may hurt without any way to get the money they're legally entitled to, no matter how solid the case. Under those circumstances, it might be wise to do your homework on any new doctor.

As a Florida medical malpractice lawyer, I have seen far too many cases where medical malpractice drastically and permanently changed a client's life. An ounce of prevention in this case is easily worth a pound of cure. But if you believe you have already been hurt by a careless doctor and would like to know more about your rights under Florida law, I urge you to contact our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation.

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There are many great things about living in South Florida -- but as my colleagues at the personal injury bar can tell you, our medical malpractice laws are not one of them. Florida state law allows doctors to go without medical malpractice insurance, as long as they post a sign saying they don’t have it and promise to pay up to $250,000 per lawsuit. Thanks to that law, the Sun-Sentinel recently reported, South Florida is the national capital for uninsured doctors. Nearly 25% of the doctors in Broward County and more than a third in Miami-Dade are uninsured, according to the article.

That may not sound like a problem at first. After all, many people do their jobs without insurance. But then again, a mistake at those people’s jobs doesn’t usually carry the high stakes of a serious medical mistake, which can cause deaths or serious, permanent disabilities. A medical malpractice lawsuit is supposed to help victims of this sort of serious mistake, by publicizing the doctor’s errors and winning them the money they need to treat the problem and compensate them for the catastrophic changes in their lives. Without insurance, most doctors can’t afford to pay medical malpractice judgments, which are frequently well over the $250,000 maximum required by the no-insurance law. Cases of birth injuries, in which a baby or mother is harmed by mistakes during a birth, often go into the millions.

As the Sun-Sentinel reported separately, this astounding and irresponsible trend toward no malpractice insurance ultimately harms the victims of medical malpractice twice. Seriously injured folks who’d have a strong case in any other state can’t win full compensation from an uninsured Florida doctor, which means the money they stand to win is often less than the cost of pursuing a lawsuit in the first place. And that means they often can’t find a medical malpractice attorney to take their cases for little or no payment. Thanks to a 2006 law, they can’t even collect from co-defendants like clinics or hospitals.

And because of the no-insurance rule, it’s not easy for patients to tell the difference between a doctor who chooses to go without insurance and one who can’t get it because of a history of malpractice. Florida could be turning itself into a haven for the worst sort of doctor. Under these circumstances, it’s hard to see how these Florida medical malpractice laws are designed to protect the public’s interests.

The Sun-Sentinel set up a tool to help you check your own doctor’s insurance status and malpractice history (Broward and Palm Beach Counties only), but for some patients, it’s already too late. If your family has been harmed by a bad doctor in South Florida, contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn for a free evaluation of your case.

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Putting someone you love in a nursing home or other assisted-care facility is an act of trust, especially if you can’t be there every day. Most caregivers are worthy of that trust -- but a few horrific stories of nursing home abuse have taught us to be vigilant. The State of Florida has laws and programs in place to ensure that nursing homes, hospitals and other health care facilities remain safe. The resulting reports are public information, but until recently, they were only available in physical form.

As the Orlando Sentinel reported, that changed recently, when the state Agency for Health Care Administration started posting inspection reports online. To view the reports, visit the Consumer Resources page on the AHCA’s Web site and choose “Health Care Facility and Provider Inspection Reports.” In a brief search, I pulled up two pages of reports on nursing homes alone in Broward County. Most noted minor problems, but I found one that said staff members consistently ignore residents’ requests for help. One resident was left on the toilet for 10 minutes without help getting up, while another visually impaired resident was forced to eat with his or her (it didn’t specify) hands because the staff didn’t help.

This collection of online records is a great tool for families considering a new health care facility of any type, including nursing homes. Unfortunately, because of state laws, it can’t publish the reports of the most serious mistakes -- the ones that lead to a wrongful death or a serious personal injury. It also doesn’t have too many reports from before this year. But it’s a great starting point for families trying to get the best care possible for their loved ones.

If your best research and efforts haven’t protected your family from serious medical mistakes or disrespectful and negligent treatment, you can file a Florida nursing home abuse or medical malpractice lawsuit. Contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn for help understanding more about your legal options and your rights.

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