Miami Injury Attorney Blog

After enduring nearly 10 years of permanent pain, a crippled arm, a limp and a 4-inch fluid-filled cavity in her spinal cord, Kathleen Ramey and her husband were awarded $36 million last week by a Palm Beach Circuit Court jury. In 2000, Ramey went to West Palm Beach pain doctor Andrew Weiss because she suffered from chronic neck pain that resulted from a car accident. Weiss injected a steroid directly into her spinal cord instead of the epidural space - causing irreversible damage. Ramey and her husband subsequently filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor. The Deerfield Beach couple now must battle Weiss' insurance company for the money. Weiss, who lost his medical license but faced no criminal charges in connection with the incident, is serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison for the illegal sale of pain medication.

A victim of medical malpractice can have their lives ruined as in the case with Ramey. She was a stay-at-home mother who at the time of incident did not qualify for Social Security disability benefits. The tragedy put a lot of strain on her family emotionally and financially as medical expenses started to mount.

Medical negligence takes a toll not only on the victim but also on his or her family. The personal injury attorneys of Gamba & Lombana feel victims who are affected by the negligence of those in the healthcare profession need to be justly compensated so that they may live normal lives.

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Former Miami Dolphins wide receiver O.J. McDuffie was awarded $11.5 million by a Miami-Dade County jury after it was determined that an improperly handled injury ended his professional career. McDuffie, who calls South Florida home, filed a professional malpractice suit against former team physician John Uribe after the doctor allegedly told McDuffie he could play even though MRIs showed severe tendon damage to McDuffie's big toe. The jury awarded $10 million for lost earnings and $1.5 million for anguish. The nine-year veteran was first injured in 1999.

With more than 30 years of experience handling medical and professional malpractice cases, the attorneys of Gamba & Lombana have seen many instances where physicians have misdiagnosed or erroneously advised patients. It is important that patients seek a second, and even a third, medical opinion before engaging in treatments or operations that may cause more harm than good. A doctor who reviews a case with a fresh set of eyes may see things missed by the original physician, potentially saving the patient from unnecessary pain and anguish. Patients should also do as much research as possible on their ailment, ask as many questions as possible (no question is too small), and if possible, take a relative or trusted friend to all consultations.

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Last week, actor Dennis Quaid released his documentary called "Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm," which aired in homes across South Florida and the country on the Discovery Channel. Quaid, whose newborn twins nearly died as a result of medical malpractice at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, has set out to raise awareness of problems America faces with medical errors. His twins were accidentally given an overdose of the blood thinner heparin. He has described himself as the "front man" for this campaign and believes that implementing safe practices can result in less medical errors and safer patients. Quaid believes accountability, like that faced by the aviation industry when accidents happen, may help shed light on the estimated 200,000 avoidable medical-error deaths that occur each year.

The medical malpractice attorneys at Gamba & Lombana have seen dozens of cases involving medical errors at hospitals across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. One case, in Hillsborough County at the H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center & Research Institute, involved a patient who allegedly received excessive amounts of radiation treatment due to an improperly calibrated machine. That case received local media attention, but unfortunately many don't. Many patients suffer from the negligence of hospitals, but the general public never learns of these mistakes. We applaud Mr. Quaid for his efforts to raise awareness on medical errors through this documentary and for his fight to improve patient safety.

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