Palm Beach medical malpractice

Missed Diagnosis a Common Florida Medical Malpractice Claim

November 14, 2023 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

As a West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer, I recognize that it’s so many of these cases are predicated on what doctors did NOT do, as opposed to what they actually did.

In a recent Florida medical malpractice case out of the First Judicial Circuit, a jury awarded $1.7 million to the widow of a man who grew increasingly ill after doctors reportedly failed to diagnose him with a condition they should have caught much earlier.

He’d gone to the emergency room in December 2017 with pain and internal bleeding. And although he was released, he never truly recovered after that stay. He died a few years later of congestive heart failure, but it was his widow’s position (with which the jury later agreed) that if his doctors provided him with quality care during that initial emergency room visit, his other conditions would not have worsened and he’d likely have lived longer and with a better quality of life.

In medical malpractice cases, the primary question is not necessarily whether there was a bad patient outcome, heartbreaking as that can be. The issue is whether we can show:

The healthcare provider failed in their duty to provide care aligning with the standards expected of someone with their education, experience, and resources. (This is proven with expert witness testimony.)
This failure to provide care aligned with professional standards directly caused or exacerbated the plaintiff’s injuries.
The injuries sustained resulted in financial harm.

Are Injuries Received in Physical Therapy Medical Malpractice?

March 30, 2023 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Physical therapy is a form of medical treatment that helps injured or ill people of all ages and ability to improve movement and manage pain. These treatments are beneficial in preventing future injuries, rehabilitating someone who has already been injured, or treating patients with chronic conditions or illnesses. But what if the treatment itself results in injury? As our West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers can explain, most physical therapy negligence cases will be filed as medical malpractice lawsuits. That’s because most claims arise out of a deviation from the standard of care expected of any physical therapist. However, there are some situations wherein a plaintiff will advocate for their claim to be treated as a general negligence case. Florida physical therapy negligence

Why does it matter? Because medical malpractice cases are a lot tougher to win. They take longer (but have a shorter statute of limitations than ordinary negligence cases), require more expert witnesses, have a higher proof burden, and must clear more hurdles before they even get a foot in the door. If you try to allege a physical therapy injury was general negligence, be prepared for push back.

What’s more, if you file the case as one of general negligence and the court later rules it was, in fact, medical malpractice, your case could be tossed and you have to start all over. If you’re past the statute of limitations, you may lose your opportunity to seek damages altogether.

Your personal injury lawyer can help you determine if your case is one of general negligence or medical malpractice, though sometimes the answer isn’t always clear-cut. Example: Corbo et al., v. Garcia, decided in 2007 by Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeals. Continue reading

South Florida Medical Malpractice Claims for “Never Events” Can Yield High Damage Awards

September 30, 2022 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Any health care provider will tell you that with every procedure, treatment, or medication, there may be a modicum of risk. Poor medical outcomes aren’t always the basis for a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit. However, grounds for such claims may be strong when the incident in question involves a so-called “never event.” Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer

As our West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers can explain, the non-profit patient protection organization the National Quality Forum describes never events as mistakes in medical care that are clearly:

Identifiable.
Preventable.
Serious in their consequences for patients.
Indicate a major problem in the safety and credibility of the health care facility.

Not all Florida medical malpractice lawsuits stem from never events, but most never events likely amount to medical malpractice.

The NFQ has a long list of all the various incidents that are generally understood as never events. Some of the most common include:

Surgery on the wrong body part.
Foreign body left in a patient after surgery.
Severe pressure ulcer that’s acquired in a hospital.
Preventable post-operative deaths.

They’re called never events because, very simply, they should never happen. And yet, they still do.

$900k FL Medical Malpractice Verdict for Spinal Surgery Never Event

Recently, the Miami Herald reported on a lawsuit stemming from a never-event at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale. The tone of the headline, “Miami jury said a screw was worth $902,000…” seemed to indicate the damage award was somehow excessive. But as Florida medical malpractice attorneys can explain, it likely had to do with the fact that it involved a never event: Leaving a foreign body in a patient after surgery. Continue reading

$2.6M Florida Medical Malpractice Verdict for Failure to Hospitalize Sooner

December 26, 2021 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Delay in timely treatment and/or diagnosis that results in patient harm can be legal grounds to pursue a Florida medical malpractice claim against a healthcare provider. As our Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys can explain, building cases like these requires using expert witness testimony to establish that the defendant health care providers failed under the circumstances to abide the applicable standard of care for their medical specialty.

Recently, a Florida jury awarded $2.6 million to the family of a man who died of a stroke – an occurrence the jury found was preventable had he been properly treated by the physicians and hospital.

As reported by Law.com, the 62-year-old decedent was seen by a vascular surgeon in the early summer of 2016. This was on the recommendation from his primary care doctor, who believed the patient’s carotid arteries (which supply blood to the brain, neck, and face) were “occluded,” or blocked. Upon examination, the surgeon diagnosed the patient with severe atherosclerosis. The man’s carotid arteries were 90 percent blocked. The surgeon recommended a procedure called an endarterectomy to remove the buildup. But it wasn’t necessary to act right away, the surgeon said, because the man had no symptoms. Instead, the procedure was scheduled for 18 days later. If the patient did become symptomatic, he was to go immediately to a hospital.

One week before the scheduled procedure, the patient became dizzy and weak. He rushed to a local hospital and was promptly admitted. The hospital contacted the office of the vascular surgeon, who was on vacation. Ultimately, they did obtain records of the scheduled surgery from the vascular surgeon’s office. Two other surgeons did not come to treat the patient immediately, but they did bump up the surgery to the following morning. However, the patient deteriorated overnight. He fatal stroke hours before the scheduled surgery.

The man’s widow, as representative of his estate, filed a Florida medical malpractice lawsuit against the first vascular surgeon, his practice, and the hospital. Continue reading