When we go to a hospital, we expect to relieve pain and make them feel better. However, there are healthcare workers who, through mistakes, and worse, through negligence or ignorance, can make a patient’s life a living hell. For example, in this tragic case from Reddit, a man in Florida went for a simple battery change for his pacemaker, and ended up dying the most painful and agonizing death I’ve ever heard of.
Redditor OverSpot6232 r/legaladvice shared that on February 26th, their father had to go in for a procedure in a hospital in Florida to replace the battery in his pacemaker with longer-lasting ones. However, in surgery, the surgeon punctured his right ventricle, which led to OP’s father going into cardiac arrest. The doctors did everything to keep the patient alive. Still, the potent medicines affected the blood flow. This caused gangrene in OP’s father’s four extremities, which all had to be amputated afterwards.
Miraculously, this man recovered, but while he was still in care, the doctors did not perform a swallow study test. Despite the family’s protests, the doctors ignored him until it was too late. The father is suffering from septic shock from aspiration pneumonia in the ICU; another major event this man survived. Sadly, in the ICU, he contracted a blood infection and passed away on June 27th.
The problem here is that nothing can be done about it because of “Florida’s ‘free kill’ law that prevents adult children from suing for medical malpractice when there’s no spouse or dependent minor. Besides, no one wants to take OP’s case, because the father was divorced and his children are adults. Besides, due to the type of hospital, the family cannot make a substantial negligence claim. Also, no one wants to take on the case, so OP asked for advice on the platform.
I’m so sorry for your loss. You can file complaints, of course. And these are Florida’s laws. There’s not a workaround for the law that exists. If it makes you feel any better (and it won’t) this wouldn’t be an easy case in any state, there are so many moving parts. Again, I’m so sorry.
enuoilslnon
Many users, like this one, feel concerned about how difficult it seems to obtain justice under laws like this. However, others believe that OP can make a claim or go after the licenses of all the medical staff involved. I think the most devastating thing about this case, besides all the pain that OP’s father suffered, is that he was a healthy man going for something so “easy” to change.
