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A widow whose husband died in a Palm City motorcycle accident last year is suing Port St. Lucie Police Sergeant John K. Holman for his Martin County, Florida wrongful death. John Garcia died when his motorcycle and the 2002 Jeep Wrangler by Holman collided at the intersection of Mapp Road and Catalina Street early on June 16, 2010. Holman was off-duty at the time.

Florida Highway Patrol cited Holman with failure to yield, but the citation was thrown out when the FHP officer who investigated the crash did not show up at the hearing. Now, however, Alice Garcia and her son Derek Garcia, have filed a Palm City, Florida wrongful death lawsuit against Holman seeking over $1 million. Their personal injury attorney also wants to know why a Florida traffic crash that ended in a vehicular homicide only resulted in a failure to yield citation.

Florida Traffic Crash Deaths

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21-year-old William Candelario is suing former Miami Heat basketball player Alonzo Mourning for Florida personal injury. Candelario claims that the former NBA player failed to help him after he was injured in a Miami-Dade car crash on the Julia Tuttle Causeway on Sunday.

Mourning’s Porsche had reportedly stuck Candelario’s vehicle, which had been disabled in an earlier crash, close to the intersection with Interstate 95. The ex-Heat player says that he did stop and check on Candelario before leaving the scene. He then called the authorities and then returned to the crash site. He has not been charged in the crash. Candelario, however, believes that Mourning could have done more to help him. He is also suing Eddy Desir, who is the driver of the car that was involved in the first collision with him.

Candelario’s Miami car accident lawyer says that his client sustained a concussion and suffered memory loss. Because of his injuries, he received treatment at the Aventura Hospital emergency room twice. It is not known at this time whether any of Candelario’s Miami car crash injuries are permanent.

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We’ve all read about auto defects that can cause catastrophic Palm Beach County car accidents. Faulty engines, worn tires, air bag malfunctions, and stuck accelerator pedals can lead a motorist to lose control of a vehicle and crash. Now, here are allegations of another type of auto defect-one that doesn’t require anyone to be driving the car let alone even be in it.

In her Broward County auto products liability complaint, Kimberlin Nickles is suing Toyota and car dealer JM Lexus for her daughter Chastity Glisson’s Boca Raton wrongful death. Glisson died of carbon monoxide poisoning after leaving her Lexus running in her garage last year. Nickles believes that her daughter either forgot to shut down her car’s engine or thought she had done so but in fact did not. Glisson’s boyfriend, Timothy Maddock, was also a victim of the CO poisoning incident and is also suing Toyota for Palm Beach personal injury.

Toyota’s Smart Car system is a keyless system that doesn’t require anything to be inserted into an ignition. Instead, it is a key fob that allows a car to keep running as long as the device is near the vehicle. Nickles contends that because her daughter’s Lexus was designed to have an engine that was “virtually soundless and smooth,” it was easy for her daughter to not realize that the vehicle was still running.

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Earlier this year, our South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog reported on a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of University of Central Florida football player Ereck Plancher against the school. The 19-year-old died three years ago when his sickle cell trait was triggered during an off-season practice session. Now, a jury has awarded Plancher’s parents a $10 million Florida wrongful death verdict.

The jurors found that UCF’s Athletic Association was negligent and did not do everything it could to save the college football player’s life. However, they also said that the association shouldn’t be ordered to pay punitive damages because there wasn’t any “clear and convincing evidence” proving gross negligence. UCF plans to appeal the jury’s verdict.

Following Plancher’s death, his teammates have come accused football staff of not coming to his help sooner even though they knew he had a pre-existing condition that should be monitored and he showed symptoms of dizziness and exhaustion and experienced breathing problems.

Student athletes can get seriously ill or die because they worked out too hard and too long or under severe weather conditions, such as extreme heat. Some athletes may be even more prone to injury because they have pre-existing health issues. It is the responsibility of the school and its athletic supervisors to know this and monitor practices and playtime accordingly. That said, even athletes that don’t suffer from health issues should be properly monitored and supervised. Ideally, coaches and trainers should make sure that players are properly hydrated, allow them to stop working out if they get dizzy or nauseous, and getting them any medical attention they need right away.

Plancher-UCF verdict heightens attention to athlete health, Florida Today, July 9, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Athletics, University of Central Florida
Sickle cell trait

More Blog Posts:
Wrongful death verdict leaves UCF with $10 million liability, big questions about O’Leary’s future, Yahoo.com, July 1, 2011

Family of Deceased UCF Football Player Can Seek Punitive Damages in their Florida Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against the University, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog March 31, 2011
Parents awarded $10 million in UCF football player’s death, News-Press, July 1, 2011 Continue reading

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A Florida jury has awarded a $1.8 million Miami-Dade premises liability verdict to Francisca Vente, the woman who was assaulted by suspected killer Michael Davis in her apartment. Vente claimed the inadequate security at Bay Winds apartment, a Cornerstone complex, made it possible for Davis to get on the grounds and enter her unit.

At the time of the 2009, Davis was fleeing from police who wanted him for questioning in the strangulation death of an 18-year-old man. When he knocked on her door, Vente let him in thinking that he was the air conditioner repairman. Davis came in and choked her until she lost consciousness. When Vente came to, she escaped him by jumping out the window of her third floor unit. Police later shot Davis on the complex grounds.

Vente, who broker her spine, pelvis, and wrists during the fall, spent three months in the hospital and a month in rehab. The former condo cleaning woman cannot bend down or walk for extended periods of time and is on disability. In addition to her physical injuries, Vente says she suffered emotional injuries from what happened and still has nightmares about it.

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A jury has ruled in favor of Susan Kalitan and awarded her a $4.7 million verdict for Broward County medical malpractice. The woman sustained personal injuries during a botched medical procedure that resulted in anesthesia complications in 2007.

Doctors were supposed to treat her carpal tunnel. Instead, she contends, medical instruments used on her during general anesthesia created a hole in her esophagus, which caused all the food she swallowed to end up in her chest cavity. Also, there was a student nurse on the anesthesia team for her surgery.

Just one day after being discharged from Broward General Medical Hospital, Kalitan was rushed to West Side Regional and had to undergo emergency surgery. Following that, she stayed in ICU for weeks, was unable swallow for months, and needed a feeding tube. She still has problems swallowing and feels numbness and pain on one side of her body.

Florida Anesthesia Malpractice
Aesthesia injuries and other complications can result in devastating consequences for patients. Permanent injury, brain damage, and death are among the worst outcomes. Examples of other injuries that can result from South Florida anesthesia mistakes include:

• Positioning injuries
• Compression injuries
• Stretch injuries
• Throat injuries
• Collapsed left lung
• Pneumopericardium
• Laryngospasm
• Emesis
• Aspiration
• Nerve damage
• Systemic toxicity
• Infection
• Anesthesia awareness
• Hypertension
• Lip injury
• Teeth injury
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Hematoma
• Swelling

Anesthesia-related injures can take place during surgery, before, after, or during the birth of a child. Anesthesia mistakes can also happen during dental procedures that require that the patient be sedated or unconscious.

Proving anesthesia-related negligence can be tough. Many hospitals will try to set up barriers to avoid liability, such as treating anesthesiologists as independent contractors that they are not responsible in the event of Florida medical malpractice, and evidence can be hard to come by unless you know exactly what to look for and where.

Hospital to Pay $4.7M For Botching Anesthesia, NBC Miami, June 17, 2011
Woman awarded $4.7 Million in malpractice, WSVN, June 18, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Strong Medical Malpractice Cases, Nolo
Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases, Nolo


More Blog Posts:
Florida Medical Malpractice Cap Upheld by US Appeals Court, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, May 29, 2011
Man to File Lauderhill Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Wife’s Broward County Wrongful Death Following Butt Enhancement Surgery, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, April 29, 2011
Man Files Florida Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Filed Against Hospital Over Wife’s 2008 Wrongful Death, February 12, 2011 Continue reading

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A 31-year-old woman is suing the Opa-Locka Police Department. She claims that the police refused to enforce the restraining order against her ex-boyfriend Victor Howard. She contends that although she wanted Howard out of her house, she was the one that police threatened to arrest if she didn’t go. She claims that they made her leave her mentally disabled son behind, which allowed Howard to allegedly rape and beat him. She says that because to city cops violated her son’s civil rights and left him with her boyfriend.

Howard, 49, has been arrested for the alleged sexual battery of a minor. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charge.

The boy, 12, has the intellectual abilities of a small child. He sustained a traumatic brain injury during a car wreck and has been diagnosed with mental retardation that makes comprehension difficult for him. Although Howard is the biological father of two of the plaintiff’s four children, the boy is not his son. The woman says that because the restraining order only gave her sole custody of the two kids that Howard fathered, the cops let the boy stay with him.

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The ex-husband of a woman who suffered a fatal fall from Roxy’s Pub in filed a West Palm Beach wrongful death complaint alleging Florida premises liability. Jessica Harris, 39, died last December after she fell two stories.

While some witnesses have said that the Lantana woman jumped after an argument with a man at the downtown tavern, others said she stepped over the security rail and said something to the effect of “look what I can do.” Brian Harris is contending that if the railing had been adequate, Harris wouldn’t have been able to fall. He is filing his Palm Beach County wrongful death complaint on behalf of her children, ages 7 and 10.

Roof Falls

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A law that caps noneconomic damages for Florida medical malpractice at about $500,000 per doctor has been upheld by the federal appeals court in Atlanta. The court rejected a family’s claim that the cap was in violation of federal and state laws.
Instead, the court found that the state law “passes muster” and dismissed the plaintiffs claims that the law deprives them of their right to obtain just compensation.

The plaintiffs are the family of Michelle McCall, who died in 2006 after giving birth to her son. Her loved ones claimed that not only did a nurse fail to notify a doctor that McCall’s blood pressure was incredibly low during a surgical procedure, but also the doctor never personally checked her vitals.

Following a bench trial, a judge in Florida said that McCall’s estate was entitled to $2 million in noneconomic damages. However, because of Florida’s medical malpractice cap, that amount had to be reduced to $1 million. (Although state lawmakers adopted new rules in 2003 that let victims get any award for economic damages, the cap limited the amount of noneconomic damages.)

Examples of Florida Medical Malpractice:

• Anesthesia errors
• Wrong diagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Wrong site surgery
• Failure to obtain informed consent
• Failure to provide proper post-surgery care
• Failure to monitor a patient’s vitals
• Surgical errors
• Birthing malpractice
• Performing the incorrect procedure on a patient
• Accidentally leaving surgical tools in a patient
• Medication mix-ups

The federal appeals court is asking the Florida Supreme Court to tackle a number of yet unresolved issues, such as whether the state’s medical malpractice cap is in violation of the family’s right to a jury trial.

US appeals court upholds Fla. med. malpractice cap, Miami Herald/AP, May 27, 2011
Read the Opinion


Related Web Resources:
Medical Malpractice, New York Times
Empowered Patient, CNN


More Blog Posts:
Man to File Lauderhill Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Wife’s Broward County Wrongful Death Following Butt Enhancement Surgery, South Florida Injury Lawyer, April 29, 2011
Man Files Florida Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Filed Against Hospital Over Wife’s 2008 Wrongful Death, South Florida Injury Lawyer, February 12, 2011 Continue reading

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According to a recent Miami Herald investigation, incidents of Florida nursing home neglect are more rampant than we realize. The newspaper cites a number of examples that resulted in patient deaths, including:

• A 74-year-old woman at a Kendal assisted living facility that died after she was restrained too tightly for more than six hours.

• A 71-year-old mentally ill patient that died from burn injuries he sustained after he was left in the bathtub with scalding water at a Hialeah nursing home.

• A 75-year-old patient with Alzheimer’s was ripped apart by an alligator after he wandered from a Clearwater nursing home. This was his fourth elopement incident while at the facility.

According to the Miami Herald, the Agency for Health Care Administration has failed to properly oversee Florida’s 2,850 nursing homes and its operators, investigate dangerous practices, or act on notifications submitted by its own inspectors about possible incidents of nursing home neglect.

Our Miami nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers take allegations of patient neglect or abuse very seriously. Please contact us right away if you even suspect that a resident is being abused or neglected at a South Florida assisted living facility.

More Florida nursing home negligence facts:
• 26 Florida facilities have been closed by the AHCA since 2005.
• In the last year, about 13,250 calls have been made by police to assisted living facilities in Broward County-that’s one call every four hours.
• 1,732 nursing homes have been caught employing illegal restraints, including chemical restraints, on patients since 2002.
• At least once a month a ALF patient dies from Florida nursing home abuse or neglect.
• Out of 70 nursing homes that Florida regulators could have shut down for severe violations in the last two years, only seven facilities were closed.

Signs of possible Florida nursing home abuse or neglect:
• Overmedication or too much sedation
• Broken bones
• Sudden weight loss or gain
• Unexplained bruises or welts
• Frequent illnesses
• Bedsores
• Malnutrition
• Dehydration
• Unsanitary conditions
• Poor hygiene
• Infections

NEGLECTED TO DEATH | Part 1: Once pride of Florida; now scenes of neglect, Miami Herald, April 30, 2011
Florida is taking elderly down a dark, deadly path, Orlando Sentinel, May 15, 2011

Related Web Resource:
Agency for Healthcare Administration


More Blog Posts:
Bills Seeks to Cap Florida Nursing Home Negligence Damages Over Wrongful Deaths, South Florida Injury Lawyer, April 20, 2011
Florida Nursing Home Neglect?: Maggots Found in 76-Year-Old Patient at Assisted Living Facility with Palm Beach County Ties, South Florida Injury Lawyer, September 14, 2010 Continue reading

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