SpineFrontier, one of the orthopedic companies that produce surgical implements for orthopedic doctors, faced more than 100 fraud and whistleblower actions filed by the federal government. The majority of these were related to illegal payments or consulting fees paid to doctors who then used their product. Court filings against the company identified the names of 35 doctors. These names have since been redacted. SpineFrontier settled these lawsuits without admitting wrongdoing.

Regulatory failures

Under intense scrutiny right now are back, hip, knee, and other joint replacement technology. Doctors are taking money from pharmaceutical companies to use their products exclusively on patients. While this might be all well and good if all products were created equally, but that hasn’t been the case. And when a medical device fails, the patient suffers worse symptoms than they had before.

Part of the problem is that the FDA, which regulates medical devices, allows companies to fast-track products that are “substantially similar” to existing products. In other words, new products that only make small changes to the design are not tested before use. In fact, many of these devices may work fine for a couple of years before they fail, giving companies a buffer between when the injury occurs and when the lawsuit is filed. Meanwhile, they are paying more doctors to use their products.

Doctors who do have relationships with companies and use their products exclusively may be liable for medical malpractice. Further, the company that manufactured the device is liable for any injuries it causes to patients. Further, when patients have complained about medical device failure and their surgeons brought the issue to the company’s attention, the company would then offer the surgeon a handsome “consulting fee” to help them improve their product. Authorities believe, however, that the companies are paying surgeons to secure their loyalty and their silence.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

If you’ve been injured due to a defective surgical product or a botched medical intervention call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Goldfarb, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can help.

Resource:

fortune.com/2021/06/17/device-makers-funneled-billions-to-surgeons-products-spinefrontier/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/the-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-personal-injury-lawsuits/

Elements of medical negligence 

This is, essentially, a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against the team and the doctors that they employed. Breaux says that the misdiagnosed a fractured fibula as a bone contusion. The  Ochsner Health System claims that they reviewed the case and found no evidence of misdiagnosis. They further claim that the allegations are unfounded.

Does the fact that the injury turned out to be a fractured fibula impact the defendant’s position? It does, but not as much as you might think.

Understanding medical negligence 

Medical negligence is not like other forms of negligence. There is a higher standard of proof. Mere medical mistakes do not, for example, rise to the standard of medical negligence. To prove medical negligence, you must show that the defendant failed to render the prevailing standard of care. For misdiagnosis cases, the law permits a number of arguments.

Understanding medical misdiagnosis 

For a medical misdiagnosis case to be successful, the plaintiff must show that the doctor failed to ever consider the correct diagnosis, or considered the correct diagnosis, but eliminated it on the basis of bad medical reasoning. Often, when a doctor is confronted with two possibilities (say bone contusion or fibula fracture) it would behoove them to err on the side of caution to prevent further injury to their player.

Winning a medical misdiagnosis case 

To win a medical misdiagnosis case, you must be able to show that the doctors failed to render the prevailing standard of care in reaching the diagnosis. Sometimes, this is harder than others. While one might expect that a bone contusion can look similar to a fracture on an X-ray, if that fact is known, then the doctors would want to eliminate the more serious diagnosis before recommending that a player continue to engage in his physically grueling work schedule. In this case, the doctors failed to ensure that the player was safe to practice, and that cost him the rest of his season and led to him winding up in the CFL.

The defendant is eligible to receive his prorated earnings during the course of his career making this lawsuit potentially damaging for the named defendants. Football players make a lot of money.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

The Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. files lawsuits against negligent medical doctors who fail to render the prevailing standard of care for their field. If you’ve recently sustained injury after a medical procedure, call our office today and we can help you recover damages related to your injuries.

Resource:

espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29972135/former-new-orleans-saints-cornerback-delvin-breaux-sues-two-former-team-doctors-injury-diagnosis

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/qualified-immunity-and-police-brutality/

Birth injury cases in which the child survives are among the largest personal injury settlements you will ever see. Some have gone northwards of $300 million for just one case. Of course, the children will never live normal human lives. Many never learn to speak or can’t even feed themselves. So expensive full-time care becomes the norm for these families.

In most other states, you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor. However, Florida has NICA which manages claims related to fetal and birth injury. Does NICA adequately compensate parents for all the expenses they will not have? Not really, which is why many are hoping to reform how birth injury cases work in Florida.

What is NICA? 

When a baby suffers birth injuries, the parents can apply to receive compensation from Florida’s birth-related neurological injury compensation fund. The program was started in 1988, but it also prevents birth-related injury lawsuits. The program gives parents $100,000 upfront and the parents can then submit more claims as the need arises.

While the program superficially appears to help families struggling with children who have birth injuries, many families have reported difficulty getting reimbursements from much-needed in-home or inpatient care. Additionally, the $100,000 figure has remained the same since the late 80s while the costs of medical care have skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, many claims submitted to NICA are rejected leaving parents with no options at all but to pay out-of-pocket for their children’s medical needs. This leaves many families bankruptcy while NICA sits on its hands and chooses which claims to move forward and which ones to reject.

Why is NICA bad? 

NICA compensates some families for some injuries to help with the costs of raising a disabled child, but it doesn’t cover enough and it’s too hard for applicants to submit perpetual claims based on every need as it arises. Compensation from NICA is nowhere near what it would be in a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, doctors have to pay less in medical malpractice insurance and folks think that causes the cost of health care to go down. So the parents are left to lament their bad luck and go to a different doctor the next time they have a child, if they can afford one.

Talk to a Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today

The Miami medical malpractice attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. can help injured patients recover damages from negligent doctors. Call our office today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can help.

Resource:

legalexaminer.com/health/florida-birth-injury-program-investigation/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/fuel-tanker-crash-results-in-lawsuit-against-insurer/

A Timeline 

In 2015, MicroPort Orthopedics began receiving word that their hip replacement technology was failing at a higher rate than normal. About one in every five patients who received Profemur hip replacements required additional surgery after an average of 4.5 years. MicroPort purchased Wright Medical’s hip division. MicroPort was required to recall over 10,000 devices that year.

Wright introduced the hip replacements to the market in 2003. It did not take long before lawsuits started being filed. One man who received a hip replacement in 2005 was back in surgery six years later due to elevated chromium and cobalt in his blood. During the subsequent surgery, his hip spontaneously dislocated. The man is still in pain today.

Later, more and more individuals began experiencing serious problems with their hip replacements. The Profemur technology was based on a metal-on-metal design that left small scrapings of metal in the body. This resulted in impacted tissue dying, severe pain, device failure, and potential fatality.

Device failures were common. Patients reported that their hip replacement began to loosen, their joint dislocated, their bones fractured, infection, and sometimes the metal itself corroded. Those that required additional surgery faced uncertain prognoses. Some patients are left with permanent neurovascular damage, hematoma, internal hemorrhaging, and in the worst cases, death.

Wright issued a significant number of recalls and faced over 1,200 lawsuits. While medical technology is a lucrative industry, paying out massive settlements to 1 of every 5 patients is not a successful business model. After losing two of their early lawsuits, Wright settled the remainder for a reported $240 million. A second settlement was entered for $90 million bringing the total to $330 million.

Medical Device Failure Lawsuits

When a medical device fails, most laypeople don’t understand why. There could be one of two reasons. The first reason involves the doctor improperly installing the device. The second reason involves some manufacturing or design defect that makes the device unsuitable for its expressed purpose. In many cases, the medical device company will blame the doctor while the doctor blames the device. However, when you’re facing 1,200 lawsuits, it’s hard to blame anyone but yourself.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

If you’ve been injured by a negligently designed or manufactured product, call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help.

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/british-family-sues-royal-caribbean-after-baby-becomes-amputee/

Insurance Company Insists MRI is “Not Medically Necessary”

Group Health Inc. and the unfortunately named eviCore reviewed the request submitted by the woman’s doctor but found that the procedure was “not medically necessary”. In other words, the insurance company overruled the woman’s doctor.

The insurance company and their claims management company incorrectly assumed that the problem was orthopedic. The patient had come in complaining about pain in her hip. The insurance company recommended six months of physical therapy before the MRI. However, the woman had already gotten several weeks of physical therapy and it did not improve her pain.

So, the woman is suing on the basis that the two companies had not even bothered to review their records of procedures that they had already paid for. They then provided a medical opinion that was so off the mark, it would be funny if there wasn’t a victim involved.

The woman’s doctor fought the insurance denial, but it was forty days later until the approval came in. The MRI revealed a sarcoma in her hip. Had she been there a month sooner, she could have gotten chemotherapy.

Bad Faith Insurance Denial

This is not a medical malpractice lawsuit, but a bad faith insurance denial lawsuit. The insurance company denied the claim without bothering to look at their policyholder’s chart and then began the process of denying, delaying, and defending while the cancer ate through her body. Bad faith insurance lawsuits are tort lawsuits. The victim is seeking over $2 million in damages based on chronic pain and suffering and permanent disfigurement. So this is a pretty cut and dried case of an insurance company recommending medical treatment that the victim had already gotten.

In this case, the victim will likely be able to recover pain and suffering damages for her decreased quality of life and permanent disfigurement. Meanwhile, the insurance company will end up paying millions of dollars because they didn’t want to cover an MRI. It is also likely that the plaintiff will be able to recover punitive damages in this case, since their behavior was appalling enough to warrant punishment and to discourage them from denying claims without reviewing their policyholders’ medical records.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Lawyer 

If you’ve been injured by another’s malice or negligence, you are entitled to recover damages related to medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today to learn more about how we can help.

Resource:

nypost.com/2020/10/06/woman-loses-leg-after-insurance-delays-mri-cancer-diagnosis/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/judge-allows-tourist-to-seek-punitive-damages-in-water-slide-injury/

What Happened? 

The family says that everything was great for two days before their daughter, Phoebe, became ill. Her parents say that the girl began vomiting during the night, and she was still vomiting in the morning, so they took her to the infirmary where the doctor diagnosed her with acute gastroenteritis. The family was ordered to quarantine in their cabin and sent Phoebe back with pain medication.

After, the parents were struggling to keep their daughter conscious and she began running a fever as high as 103.8 degrees. The family defied the quarantine order and brought their daughter back to the infirmary where a nurse called another doctor who told them to give her ibuprofen and return to their cabin. On their way back to the cabin, Phoebe began “violently” vomiting. The family pleaded with the on-call doctor to take a look, but the doctor told the nurse to continue with the ibuprofen and send them back to their room. A few hours later, Phoebe developed a rash, so they went back. The doctor told them she was cold and put socks on her. The complaint states that after this visit to the infirmary, Phoebe’s medical notes say that she was ‘ok’ and ‘feeling better’ with no mention of the rash the parents complained about.

A few hours later, the family returned to the infirmary and refused to leave. There was no doctor present in the infirmary. Over the next four hours, Phoebe’s rash and other symptoms worsened. Three hours later, a doctor arrived. Phoebe’s grandmother was able to convince the doctor that she had an infection and Phoebe was given antibiotics for the first time, 16 hours after her first visit.

Eventually, Phoebe would be diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. This form of meningitis has a 50% mortality rate when left untreated. Despite the fact that the infection had already begun destroying her limbs, the family was refused a request for an airlift to the nearest hospital. The family was allowed to leave the next morning but was not given a medical priority disembarkation order.

As a result of the delayed treatment, Phoebe was placed on dialysis and the tissue damaged by the infection was removed. One hand and both of her feet were removed as a result of the treatment.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney

If you or someone you love has been injured as a result of medical negligence, call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can help.

Resource:

usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/10/01/royal-caribbean-sued-over-babys-illness-leading-amputations/3508436001/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/volcano-bay-waterslide-is-the-subject-of-73-injury-claims/

Alfredo Victor Fernandez and his wife went to the orthopedics center after his wife suffered an ankle injury. The plaintiffs successfully argued that the doctors had the right plan in place to treat Mrs. Fernandez, but several lapses led to her not getting the right treatment. The treatment involved specific medication to prevent the formation of clots after surgery. The attending doctor never followed through on the treatment plan, and Mrs. Fernandez was never given the medication she needed to prevent the clots. Eventually, she died because she was not given the clot-preventing medication.

A Complicated Case

Two doctors, an orthopedics group, and a nursing home were all listed as codefendants in the lawsuit. The entire lawsuit revolved around the failure of any doctor in whose care she was entrusted to ensure she was on the anti-clot medication. At every step of the way, some doctor failed to give her the medication that would have saved her life. So, all of these doctors were liable, but some were more liable than others.

Her attending physician, Jordan, knew that Mrs. Fernandez was at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis. He ordered blood pressure and blood-thinning medication to prevent clots from forming. He ordered anticoagulants to be administered for the next 21 days. She is then transferred to a nursing home, where the anticoagulants are never administered.

Jordan, the attending physician, says that once the patient left his care it was up to the rehab center to ensure that Mrs. Fernandez was getting her medication. However, since he was the attending physician, he was still allotted 5% of the blame.

95% of the blame went to the doctor who attended to her at the rehab facility. Despite the fact that the patient was running a fever and her condition seemed to be worsening, a second doctor, Dr. Cruz, was allotted the majority of the liability in this case. Eventually, she developed severe breathing problems and pneumonia. An autopsy revealed that she had developed a pulmonary embolism.

A lawsuit against the nursing home is still pending.

Understanding Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice lawsuits are extremely complicated. When a patient like Mrs. Fernandez dies due to an obvious medical error like this one, the surviving family members can file a medical malpractice/wrongful death lawsuit against the doctor, the hospital they work for, and others involved in the incident. In this case, establishing that there was an actionable quality of care issue was not difficult. The patient needed medication that she never got.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today 

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of a medical doctor or lost someone you loved due to medical negligence, call the Miami medical malpractice attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation and discuss your options.

Resource:

law.com/dailybusinessreview/2020/04/20/042020verdictfernandez/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/coronavirus-and-infectious-disease-lawsuits/

Yet this isn’t the first type of lawsuit of its kind and it likely won’t be the last. It’s part of a growing trend of unscrupulous doctors making false diagnoses to steal money from patients.

Clinic Faces 60 Lawsuits 

The Ohio memory-loss clinic is facing 60 lawsuits and Sherry-Ann Jenkins and her husband, Dr. Oliver Jenkins are facing conspiracy charges and several counts of fraud including health care fraud. The indictment did not expressly mention intentionally false diagnosis, but the 60 lawsuits that the couple is facing do allege that they intentionally misdiagnosed their patients and sent them for false and unnecessary tests.

For the patients, several had stories about making arrangements for the final years of their life. One patient killed himself in his garage. Others quit their jobs and began planning their last years. Many said they considered suicide.

The indict states that Sherry-Ann Jenkins would present herself as a doctor to patients and then diagnose them with Alzheimer’s disease. She would order a battery of expensive tests despite having no qualifications to do so. Her husband, who was a licensed doctor, signed off on the tests at the time. The indictment says that he never saw patients and was rarely at the clinic.

Not the First False Diagnosis Case

While these types of lawsuits are exceedingly rare, they make headlines every time it happens. In one case, a doctor faced multiple lawsuits in Colorado after he falsely diagnosed multiple sclerosis in several patients who later found out that they never had the disease. More recently a Michigan doctor has been accused of falsely diagnosing children with epilepsy.

Ordering an unnecessary test in and of itself is considered medical malpractice. Falsely diagnosing someone with a condition that you are not qualified to treat is a step further. Since Jenkins isn’t a doctor, she likely doesn’t have medical malpractice insurance. In fact, it’s a crapshoot as to whether or not her husband does either. Physicians are not required to carry insurance in Florida and many don’t because it’s expensive. This can end up leaving injured patients filing lawsuits against judgment-proof doctors who will just turn around and discharge the jury award in bankruptcy.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

If you have been injured by a negligent doctor, call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation. We will go over the merits of your case and discuss the prospects of winning in court. Call today to learn more.

Resource:

miamiherald.com/news/article242899781.html

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/as-frontline-workers-fall-ill-with-coronavirus-families-ponder-litigation/

Martins was on shore leave when she was struck by a car in the Bahamas. When she returned to the ship, she sought the medical attention of the ship’s doctor. The ship’s doctor told Martins that she was fit to work and failed to diagnose three broken ribs. She returned to her job as a dining room server and continued to serve tables for the next ten days aboard the ship.

Later, a Florida doctor found that she had broken three of her ribs, and returned to her home country of Portugal where she received five months of sustained treatment. She returned to work in 2014, but had to leave a month later due to severe nerve damage that she alleged resulted from the failure to diagnose.

Breaking Down the Verdict 

In most injury cases of this sort, there are three main areas of recovery. There are medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering damages. In this case, the jury allotted Martins $2 million for lost wages alone. They awarded an additional $1 million for pain and suffering. In most personal injury cases, you will not see punitive damages. But in this case, the jury awarded Martins an additional $1 million to punish the cruise line for their egregious conduct toward their employee.

Punitive damages are awarded in instances of egregious conduct that shows a complete disregard for the rights and safety of others. The jury saw fit to punish Disney Cruises to the tune of $1 million for failing to properly diagnose Martins and recommending that she return to work after being hit by the car.

The jury did, however, assign Martins 30% of the blame. They found that Disney was 70% responsible for Martins’ injuries.

Yet Another Case of Medical Negligence Aboard a Cruise Ship 

Instances of medical negligence aboard cruise ships are not uncommon. Several lawsuits have been filed in the past decade against Carnival, Royal Carribean, and others who offer prolonged vacation packages aboard cruise ships. Patients come in with sometimes serious medical events that the cruise line doctors are either not prepared to deal with or fail to diagnose correctly. In cases of severe medical events, patients are supposed to be flown to the nearest hospital, but some fail to get the care they need if the doctor doesn’t recognize the severity of their problems early enough.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

If you’ve been injured aboard a cruise line, either as a passenger or a crewman, call the law Miami cruise ship accident attorneys at the offices of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. We can file a lawsuit against the cruise line and hold them accountable for their negligence. Schedule a free consultation today.

Resource:

miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article238836373.html

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/fiu-contractor-mcm-accused-of-acting-in-bad-faith/

An early report claims that Arthrex iBalance passed clinical studies and patients reported a reduction in pain and an increase in flexibility. The technology, Arthrex claims, is unique insofar as it matches the curvature of a typical knee. In 2018, however, the report was revised to reflect a longer period of study. Over four years, the report could only conclude that more study was needed to determine the overall benefit of the technology and whether or not there was a statistically significant reduction in symptoms. These included a reduction of pain, flexibility, and an overall improvement in quality of life.

Arthrex Recalls TKA Tibial Trays

In 2015, Arthrex recalled 2,300 tibial trays. Several individuals claimed the devices failed causing them more pain and requiring further treatment. Several of these individuals have filed lawsuits against the company.

The iBalance system comes with several tools that a surgeon can use to perform a knee replacement surgery. These tools come with a pamphlet on how to correctly install the device. The metal and plastic pieces are fixed to the bone using bone cement. The surgeon then checks the patient’s range of motion. A plastic insert is placed between the lower leg bone (tibia) and the upper leg bone (femur) taking the place of natural cartilage. Recovery can take several weeks of physical therapy before the patient has the full use of their knees.

The tibial tray was the subject of the recall. Arthrex mysteriously reported that the tibial trays were “reported to have a smooth texture to the metal” that are apparently different from other models that had a textured surface.

Problems Related to Arthrex iBalance 

After excluding problems that can occur with any surgery, patients reported iBalance-specific issues that directly related to the tibial tray. Additionally, the FDA received several reports of iBalance failures that are searchable in their MAUDE database. Reported problems included:

• Loosening of the tibial tray
• Dislocation
• Component part migration
• Device failure

This led to:

• Severe pain
• Stiffness
• Swelling
• Infection

Lawsuits Against Arthrex

Several lawsuits allege that Arthrex’s product was designed defectively and that patients endured unnecessary pain and required further surgery to correct the problem. These complications appear directly related to the loosening of the iBalance tibial tray. Patients went through extended periods of pain and recover and lost years of their lives that they were hoping to get back.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney

If you’ve been injured by a dangerous or defective product, the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. can recover damages related to your injuries. Talk to us today to set up a free consultation.

Resource:

arthrex.com/knee/ibalance-hto-system

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/woman-blames-vaping-products-for-double-amputation/