One Florida Doctor Faces 350 Malpractice Lawsuits
One Jacksonville doctor is the defendant in an astounding 350 medical malpractice lawsuits. Hundreds more are expected by the end of the year.
As you may know, Florida has a three strikes law for doctors. That means that doctors who have three or more medical malpractice judgments against them can be barred from practicing medicine in the state. In practice, however, the law does little or nothing to curb bad doctors from practicing medicine. In order to understand why, all you need to know is that in order to get a strike against them, a doctor must lose a medical malpractice lawsuit in court. That means that if the doctor settles the claim, it doesn’t count against them. Hence why one doctor can face nearly 500 medical malpractice lawsuits and still retain his license. To make matters worse, Florida prevents some types of medical malpractice lawsuits from moving forward under its wrongful death statute. In other cases, Florida doctors can be immune from lawsuits if they work for the state government. Such doctors would never get strikes against them. This is how the VA became a lightning rod for bad doctors.
Doctor was practicing medicine with a neurological disease
In this case, both the doctor and the hospital that gave him surgical privileges are being sued. The doctor had a degenerative neurological condition that resulted in several of the surgeries going wrong. The hospital claims that any negligence that occurred is solely the responsibility of the doctor, but as a matter of law, they are entirely wrong. The hospital ignored clear signs that the doctor’s practice was in jeopardy and allowed him to continue to use their facilities over a 4-year period. Under the law, the hospital has a non-delegable duty of care to ensure that the doctor is competent to perform a surgery. In this case, they ignored a growing number of medical malpractice lawsuits and complaints.
Someone who was suffering from the same disorder that the doctor had would be expected to have involuntary movements, difficulty with maintaining balance, and difficulty with fine motor coordination. Cognitive problems are also likely. In other words, you can’t perform surgery if you have this condition. According to witnesses, on multiple occasions, the doctor had to be reminded of what he was doing. 18 days before he lost a patient, the doctor was observed with uncontrollable shaking, slurred speech, and yelling at nursing staff. 18 days later, he performed a surgery that cost the life of a patient.
Had the hospital denied the doctor surgical privileges after it became apparent that he was unfit to practice medicine, the plaintiff would still be alive. The hospital should be on the hook for both compensatory and punitive damages for exposing patients to obvious danger.
Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today
The Miami personal injury lawyers at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. represent the interests of injured patients in medical malpractice lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. Call our Miami office today and we can begin discussing your case immediately.
Source:
firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/lawsuit-jacksonville-surgeon-david-heekin-st-vincent-riverside-hospital-ascension/77-b09f888c-e3aa-4d42-bc23-e6053aac62b3
