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Medical Malpractice Causes Injury and Death

Medical negligence of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers is a far too often occurrence. Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans every year, the equivalent of a fully loaded commercial jet crashing every day of the year. Research by the prestigious RAND Institute found that only about one half of patients received appropriate care for their conditions. Too often that results in serious and permanent consequences for the patient.

Medical malpractice has been a much debated topic over the last year. Faced with rising insurance premiums, doctors are striking and threatening to leave the practice. Doctors and the insurance industry have been demanding limits on lawsuits and blaming trial lawyers for rising insurance costs. The truth is, however, it is the insurance industry's bad business practices and the erosion of stock market profits that has caused premiums to increase.

From its beginning, our firm has represented victims of medical malpractice. We believe that when a patient is injured or dies as a result of substandard medical care, they are entitled to justice and their day in court. We also believe that medical malpractice cases improve the quality of care for all by serving notice that if a healthcare provider does not use appropriate care, they will be held responsible for the harm they inflict.

Among current medical malpractice cases the firm is handling is the case of Laura Coco and Giovanni Coco vs. Juan M. Leborgne, M.D., Marcos A. Zequeira, M.D., Aurelio Mitjans, M.D. and Lifemark Hospital of Florida, Inc. d/b/a Palmetto General Hospital where our client was operated on by mistake. Mrs. Coco went to Palmetto General Hospital because she was not feeling well. It turns out that she was fine and had nothing seriously wrong with her. Her doctors, however, mixed up the MRI films and thought she was someone else. Based on the mixed up films they told her she needed an operation and she consented. She now has a filter in her vein that was unnecessary and is causing her problems that she would not otherwise have had.

Laura Broder was a young woman who went to Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment of a congenital heart problem. She had a problem that was easily correctable and was expected to be released from the hospital in 24 hours. Unfortunately, her doctors did not give her enough blood thinner medication. As a result, blood clots formed in her arteries and traveled to her brain causing a massive stroke which has left her significantly disabled. This was another totally avoidable and tragic medical mistake.This case just settled on the morning the trial was to begin for $6,750,000.

Richard Goldrich was a young man, 42 years of age, with a wife and young child. He had a valve repaired in his heart a couple of months before going to Miami Heart Institute for chest pain and other problems. Mr. Goldrich had an easily treatable staph infection. Blood tests were run that confirmed the infection. Amazingly, despite the results showing an infection which, to a patient like Richard could be devastating because of his heart valve situation, he did not receive appropriate antibiotics, was discharged from the hospital, and died shortly afterward. This case illustrates how, even at good hospitals like Miami Heart Institute, terrible things can happen to patients if doctors and nurses are not paying enough attention to them.

A lady from Ohio was visiting her parents in the Florida Keys. She slipped and fell and went to Fisherman's Hospital in Marathon where a fracture was diagnosed. The on call surgeon told her she needed immediate surgery and should not wait until she returned home to seek a second opinion. The doctor operated and used a plate and screws that were inappropriate and caused further damage to the bone and muscle. Our client has had to undergo several additional operations, including removal of the original hardware. She is still receiving care and is endanger of being left with a significantly disabled and painful shoulder for the rest of her life all due to the negligent care received by the first surgeon.

It is tragic when substandard medical care results in injury or death to adults. It is even more tragic when children are the victims. We are currently litigating a case in Tallahassee involving a young boy whose mother had an infection during her pregnancy which was transmitted to the baby. On delivery, the baby showed many signs of infection which the doctors and nurses missed. The undiagnosed and untreated infection resulted in the tragic death of a five-day-old baby. The event has left the parents thoroughly shocked and depressed.

We have reviewed countless medical negligence cases which we have rejected for a variety of reasons. We carefully screen every malpractice case that we prosecute. Having done this type of work for 30 years, the insurance companies and defense lawyers that we regularly deal with know that we only accept quality cases where the liability is good and the damages are significant. In other words, when a complaint is filed by this firm, it is received by the defense with the presumption that this is a good case that the insurance companies would do well to settle and settle early. Our adversaries know that we will spend as much, and usually more money preparing a case than they will. We pride ourselves on retaining the very best physician and nursing expert witnesses available and leave no stone unturned in the preparation and trial of the medical malpractice case.

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