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-April 13, 2005
Seventeen-year-old Minouche Noel has been paralyzed from the waist down since she was six months old-when she became the victim of a botched surgery. Her life could be drastically improved if she were able to move her wheelchair through the small doorframes of her family's home, if she had access to a handicap accessible van or if she were able to get physical therapy, but her family is unable to afford these basic amenities.
A jury awarded her $8.5 million as compensation for the medical malpractice case, but she has been unable to collect any of it, becoming yet another example of what happens to severe victims of medical malpractice when politicians pass legislation restricting rights. Minouche has been unable to collect compensation because she was treated by doctors working for a state-run, low-income medical program that restricts her to $200,000 unless the Florida Legislature consents.
After five years of lobbying, all efforts at recovering the money to which she is legally entitled have been unanswered. Though the trembling in her legs could be calmed with physical therapy, Minouche is still fighting and pleading her case. Minouche's case is somewhat of a paradox. Critics of the Florida medical malpractice laws think that had Minouche been treated at a private hospital she would probably have the money the jury said she is owed, but her family could not afford private medical care, and took her to the Children's Medical Service.
The hospital is a state-run program administered at Broward County's public hospitals, and just like other municipalities and state agencies, the program and its doctors have sovereign immunity, which means medical malpractice claims cannot exceed $200,000 unless the Legislature says otherwise. Ever year, up to a dozen claim bills are filed but few are approved.
According to House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, many of the claims before the Legislature involved "very bad things," but funding for these claims is not possible because of the fear that state, county and local governments will not be able to survive the financial burden. Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said the problem with claims bills is that the ones that get through are due to access to the proper connections-access that most people do not have.
When Minouche was born with spina bifida, a neutral tube defect that affects the spine, a doctor at Children's Medical Services also found a small lesion on her back. When doctors removed the lesion, her spine became infected during surgery and Minouche slowly became paralyzed from the waist down. Her parents were reassured that she would recover, but they never detected the infection, and several doctors failed to give a neurological exam that would have revealed the problem.
After a jury concluded the doctors should have diagnosed the infection and never operated on the lesion to begin with, the medical malpractice claim was never appealed by the state, which owns the clinic. The medical malpractice case is just one example of the injustices suffered by some of the most seriously affected victims of medical malpractice.
For more information on Florida medical malpractice, please contact us to speak with a laywer.
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