West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer Tag Archives

Doctors Who Paid Big Medical Malpractice Settlements Now Decide Insurer-Approved Care

March 13, 2024 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

One might presume (or at least hope) that negligent doctors with a track record of paying large sums to settle multiple Florida medical malpractice lawsuits would have a tough time continuing to work in the health care industry. That person would be wrong. West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer

Not only is it rare for a doctor to lose their state-issued license to practice medicine in Florida, a new report by ProPublica revealed that several physicians repeatedly found negligent in providing patient care now earn healthy sums working for health insurers — approving or denying coverage for patient insureds.

The first example involved a surgeon who practiced for years in Brevard County, Florida — during which time he settled five Florida medical malpractice lawsuits for a collective $3 million. Among the patient allegations against him:

He negligently cut the aorta of a patient who underwent surgery for her gallbladder. She died just before her 40th birthday, leaving behind a husband and two teen daughters.
He negligently stapled and stitched a patient’s rectum to her vagina.

The surgeon denied these and three other claims against him, but ended up paying sizable settlements to each of those claimants for medical malpractice.

Those harmed might take comfort in the fact that he hasn’t worked as a practicing surgeon for a dozen years. However, he was hired to work as a medical director for a health insurance company, where he is a critical gatekeeper deciding which patient procedures will be covered by the insurer and which won’t. Not only that, he oversees more than a dozen other medical directors.

Although medical directors like him never see patients in person, they can overrule the doctors who do when they recommend medicines, tests, treatments, or procedures.

ProPublica reported that on average, a single medical director reviews 10,000+ patient claims for coverage a year. In a few cases, doctors astonishingly ruled on more than 10,000 claims in a single month. That breaks down to a single person ruling on more than 333 cases a day – and that assumes the doctor actually worked 30 days straight, which is unlikely.

Rubber-Stamping Health Insurance Coverage Denial

Florida Lawsuits for Robotic Surgery Injuries

February 29, 2024 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Filing a Florida lawsuit for robotic surgery injuries may be warranted if adverse patient outcomes are the result of machine malfunction, surgeon error or a preventable mistake during the procedure. Such claims may be filed against the surgeon, but also potentially against the manufacturer of the robot. Lawsuits against surgical robot manufacturers would not be for medical malpractice, but rather product liability. West Palm Beach product liability lawyer

The use of robotic systems for surgeries has grown rapidly in recent decades. Specialized technology has enabled these systems to deliver precision care, even in difficult-to-reach areas, such as the heart, digestive system, bladder, prostate and more. They tend to result in less pain during recovery, shorter hospital stays, lower risk of infection and smaller scars.

However, they’re also associated with a number of serious risks, such as nerve damage and compression. What’s more, their safety may be overstated, and complications underreported. In one report published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, researchers report that of the 1 million+ robotic surgeries performed in the last 20+ years, there were 245 complications and 71 deaths reported to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. That figure was suspiciously low. Researchers then uncovered several incidents that were reported by the news media that were never reported to the FDA, indicating intentional underreporting. It’s likely there are additional incidents that were never reported to the FDA or the media.

Johns Hopkins Medicine reported 57 percent of surgeons anonymously reported irrecoverable operative malfunction while using a robotic surgical system, requiring them to convert the procedure to laparoscopic or open surgery. Continue reading

Jury Finds Florida Hospital Liable for Medical Malpractice, False Imprisonment, Emotional Distress

December 1, 2023 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Jurors in Florida recently found a renowned children’s hospital liable for medical malpractice, false imprisonment and emotional distress, awarding $220 million to the now-17-year-old plaintiff. Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer

As our Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers can explain, this case is unique for several reasons. First, it’s rare for a Florida medical malpractice case to involve false imprisonment, which is an intentional tort. Secondly, the case was featured in a documentary on Netflix called, “Take Care of Maya,” prior to the verdict.

The plaintiff was 10 and suffering from a chronic pain condition when her mother brought her into the hospital and told doctors she needed ketamine treatments, which are considered risky, especially for children. The girl had reportedly been given such treatments initially in Mexico, and the mother said it significantly improved her condition.

But hospital staff didn’t buy it. They didn’t think the girl was truly in as much pain as was alleged. In fact, they suspected this to be a case of Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. Continue reading

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.

Widow Awarded $20 Million in Palm Beach Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

October 22, 2023 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

Two years ago, a 53-year-old husband and father walked into a regional hospital with a common inflammatory condition – and was dead within a week. Now, jurors have awarded his widow $20 million from the doctor who prescribed powerful pain medications for his pancreatitis without the benefit of constant machine-monitoring of his oxygen levels, despite his diagnosis of sleep apnea. Palm Beach medical malpractice attorney

As our Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers can explain, a big part of this case was about what did NOT happen, as opposed to an active error. Specifically, according to reports on the trial, the doctor failed to even ask whether the patient had a history of obstructive sleep apnea. As several expert medical witnesses for the plaintiff testified, any physician who is prescribing a powerful narcotic should inquire specifically about this condition because it causes the muscles of the throat and palate to close, effectively stopping airflow. This can be perilous even under normal circumstances. But pain medications like Dilaudid, an opioid that is seven (7) times more powerful than morphine, are respiratory depressors. Combine the two, and the risk of a serious or fatal complication skyrockets.

For this reason, the expert medical witnesses testified, the patient should have been placed on a telemetry monitor or pulse oximeter that would have kept careful track of his vital signs while he slept under the influence of the Dilaudid. Failure to do so, the experts said, fell far short of the standard of care.

The defendant had prescribed the patient increasing doses of the pain medication for more than 18 hours before another doctor discovered him the following afternoon, unresponsive in his bed, heart no longer beating. Emergency resuscitation efforts revived him, but could not reverse the damage done by lack of oxygen to the brain. He was pulled from life support six days later.

Another aspect of this Palm Beach medical malpractice case that our trial lawyers noted was that part of the defense strategy ended up backfiring and being a big win for the plaintiff. For context, this all happened within the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ll recall that for a time, doctors, nurses, and pretty much all healthcare workers and facilities were being run ragged. Attorneys for the doctor cited this burnout and lack of personnel and resources as part of the reason why constant monitoring of the patient’s vitals wasn’t feasible. But as the plaintiff’s attorneys noted, this would be all the more reason for the doctor to order machine monitoring. Machines don’t experience pandemic-related burnout.

In essence, the plaintiff’s attorneys took what the defense legal team probably thought was one of its strongest arguments and flipped it on its head. Continue reading

Can Florida Medical Malpractice Lawsuit be Filed Over Denied Abortion Care?

August 9, 2023 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

As West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers, we’ve been carefully watching the shifting landscape of OBGYN healthcare since the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. Florida medical malpractice abortion bans

Since then, many states – including Florida – have moved to substantially restricted abortion access. Along with that, there have been a growing number of reports of doctors and hospitals refusing to end pregnancies, even when women are facing life-threatening complications. While most state with abortion restrictions have carved out exceptions when the life of the mother is in jeopardy, healthcare providers say these exceptions are so narrowly written that they run the risk of criminal prosecution or loss of their medical license if they act before the woman’s situation is truly dire.

Much of this comes down to the fact that clearly identifying when a condition is “life-threatening” isn’t so simple. Every scenario is different, and there may not be universal consensus. Further, even when doctors know the woman’s situation WILL inevitably become life-threatening if they don’t act, they say the law paralyzes them from doing anything until her life is actually in danger.

Take for example a case that ABC News reported on about a woman in Texas who had to wait until she developed sepsis – a life-threatening infection of the blood – before doctors were willing to provide her with a lifesaving abortion. They knew she would develop sepsis, but reportedly couldn’t do anything to help her until she did. She was 4 months pregnant when her water broke, causing her to lose her amniotic fluid, which is essential to keeping a fetus alive. Texas law prohibits abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected. So even though she arrived at the hospital, shaking, feverish, no amniotic fluid, and no chance the fetus would survive, doctors said they could not provide her immediate emergency abortion care – because the fetus’s heartbeat was still detected. She had to wait nearly a full day to develop full-blown sepsis before she could acquire abortion care. Doctors told her, “You will get very sick before we can help you.” Had she been a patient in a state with less restrictive abortion laws, she could have received abortion care immediately and avoided sepsis – and all the major health risks that go with that. She reportedly continues to suffer health complications because of that infection.

In Florida, abortions after 6 weeks were recently banned by a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. However, that ban is on pause until the Florida Supreme Court can weigh in. For now, Florida is a top destination for Southerners seeking abortions up to 15 weeks. There’s no assured timeline – or outcome – in the state high court decision, but it’s widely expected that the conservative-leaning court will allow the abortion restrictions – with no exceptions for rape or incest – to remain in place.

Will Doctors Refusing Abortions Be Shielded From Florida Medical Malpractice Claims?

What is the Florida Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations?

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

The injuries one sustains as a result of South Florida medical malpractice may last forever – but the time window in which you must initiate legal action does not. West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyer

As our Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys can explain, there is generally a two-year statute of limitations for Florida medical malpractice claims. Generally, if you do not file your lawsuit within this window, your claim may be time-barred. These limits are set forth in F.S. 95.11(4)(b).

Although it’s true that often these cases are resolved through settlement negotiation, they are more complex than other types of personal injury claims. They require expert witnesses, extensive evidence, and a great deal of preparation. It’s often necessary to file a lawsuit just to preserve the claim so that we can continue negotiations. Settlements can often be beneficial to claimants because they can lead to faster resolutions and save the time/expense/emotional toll of a trial. Still, it’s important when hiring a Florida medical malpractice lawyer that you choose one with extensive experience, a track record of success in similar cases, and who is unafraid to take a case all the way to trial if necessary.

Note that the statute of limitations varies from state-to-state, so if you recently moved here from elsewhere, the time limits and requirements were probably different.

Are There Any Exceptions to the Two-Year Limit?

There are exceptions to the two-year statute of limitations for Florida medical malpractice claims, but they are limited in scope.

The clock starts ticking usually on the date of the incident. However, it might not start until the date you discovered or should have discovered the incident through the exercise of due diligence. So perhaps you were harmed by medical malpractice, but you didn’t know – and couldn’t have known – that was the cause right away. In those situations, the court will ask at what point you reasonably should have become aware there was an issue.

Despite this, there is a hard stop of four years from the date the incident occurred. This is referred to as the statute of repose. So let’s say you don’t discover your injuries or that the source of your injuries was medical malpractice until three years after it happened. In that situation, you would have just one year in which to file your claim.

To file any Florida medical malpractice case beyond four years, the fact pattern needs to reflect one of the following situations: Continue reading

Florida Medical Malpractice Ruling: Hospital Liability May Rest on Degree of Control

September 2, 2022 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

One of the complicating factors in South Florida medical malpractice cases stemming from negligence in hospitals is that very often, the doctors are not direct employees of the hospital. Florida medical malpractice lawyer

Why does this matter? Because in Florida, employers can be held vicariously liable for the negligent actions of their employees. That means one does not need to prove the employer directly engaged in wrongdoing, so long as one can show the negligent employee was acting in the course and scope of employment at the time of the incident. When doctors are classified as independent contractors – separate from the hospital – it means additional proof of direct negligence by the hospital is required in order to prevail in a case against them.

However, a recent South Florida appellate ruling on a medical malpractice lawsuit may broaden the circumstances under which a hospital may be held vicariously liable for the negligent actions of doctors providing care at the medical facility. Justices in Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal in Gradia v. Baptist Hospital reversed the trial court’s ruling clearing the hospital of vicarious liability in a medical malpractice case.

Florida Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Bill Dies in Committee

August 5, 2022 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

A bipartisan-supported state bill that would have allowed non-economic damage claims in Florida medical malpractice wrongful death cases to be brought by the parents of unmarried, childless adult children over age 25 has failed in the Senate Rules Committee.

The outcome was disappointing, but predictable, given the strength of the health care and insurance lobbies here in the Sunshine State. In effect, there will continue to be cases of Florida medical malpractice wrongful deaths for which there is no legal remedy – simply because the decedent had no spouse or minor children under the age of 25.

Proponents of HB 6011 say it would have closed the “free kill” loophole of Florida medical malpractice law. Specifically, the way the law is currently written, it limits financial recovery in medical malpractice wrongful death cases so that the only people who can sue are the decedent’s surviving spouse and/or children under 25. Backers of HB 6011 have argued that this oversight effectively creates an incentive for physicians to allow some patients to die, rather than save them. Specifically, if an unmarried adult patient with no under-25 kids survives injury or illness resulting from medical malpractice, they can sue the doctor in their own right. But if that patient dies, there would be no survivors under Florida law who could bring that claim. This is what patient advocates have been referring to as a “free kill.”

It’s certainly in stark contrast to general negligence wrongful death claims, wherein there is a broader net cast for who has the right to sue.

When a person’s death is the result of a wrongful act, negligence, or breach of contract, Florida law allows family members or the estate to bring claims for lost wages, benefits, and other earnings. Family members may also sue for support and services the deceased can no longer provide, as well as for the loss of guidance and companionship. The law also allows compensation for mental and emotional suffering (non-economic damages). Those who can pursue such claims include:

A surviving spouse.
A child 25 years or younger.
A child 25 years or older, if there is no surviving spouse.
Parents of a deceased child over the age of 25 with no surviving spouse or children.

But Florida treats medical malpractice wrongful death claims differently. Continue reading

Florida Supreme Court to Weigh Hospital Liability of Independent Contractor Doctors

December 5, 2019 | by David J. Halberg, Esq.

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a hospital can be held accountable for the negligent treatment by independent-contractor emergency room doctors. Our West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawyers will be closely following the developments of this case, and a decision is likely to be handed down sometime next year.

The case stems from a botched plastic surgery provided at an unlicensed clinic by a man posing as a Venezuelan doctor. The clinic was licensed to give massages, but advertised the services of certified plastic surgeons (which it did not have) to perform buttocks-enhancement injections. A 28-year-old woman was rushed to a local emergency room after suffering complications from the procedure in 2013. She was treated at the hospital’s emergency room and in the intensive care unit, but died within hours. The “doctor” was later arrested and the clinic shuttered, but her estate filed a lawsuit against both the hospital and emergency room doctors for negligence.

The hospital insists it cannot be held liable for treatment provided by the emergency room doctors, as they were independent contractors. Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal agreed in a ruling earlier this year. However, this ruling conflicts with one by Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals in a similar case.

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to review the conflict, but has yet to set a date for oral arguments. Continue reading