Stroke Victim Receives Florida's Highest Ever Malpractice Award
Saturday September 30, 2006
A stroke survivor, 50 year old Allan Navarro, has been awarded $116-million, Florida’s largest jury malpractice award, in a suit against a Tampa hospital. Mr. Navarro is a former professional basketball player from the Philippines. He and his family moved to the United Stated in the 1990s.
According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, when Mr. Navarro sought emergency treatment in 2000 for complaints of nausea, headache, double vision and an unsteady gait, he was diagnosed by “an unlicensed hospital worker” with sinusitis. Instead he had experienced a stroke and was treated in the same emergency room less than 24 hours later with severe brain swelling and suffered permanent damage. His attorney convinced the jury that the permanent disabilities were the result of the delay in medical treatment. Punitive damages against the hospital are also being considered in the case.
While this story doesn’t make complete sense to me because I can’t imagine someone going to a hospital emergency department and seeing only “an unlicensed hospital worker”, it does underscore the critical lack of awareness of stroke symptoms in both the general public and medical communities, and of the importance of seeking medical care immediately when someone exhibits those symptoms.
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According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, when Mr. Navarro sought emergency treatment in 2000 for complaints of nausea, headache, double vision and an unsteady gait, he was diagnosed by “an unlicensed hospital worker” with sinusitis. Instead he had experienced a stroke and was treated in the same emergency room less than 24 hours later with severe brain swelling and suffered permanent damage. His attorney convinced the jury that the permanent disabilities were the result of the delay in medical treatment. Punitive damages against the hospital are also being considered in the case.
While this story doesn’t make complete sense to me because I can’t imagine someone going to a hospital emergency department and seeing only “an unlicensed hospital worker”, it does underscore the critical lack of awareness of stroke symptoms in both the general public and medical communities, and of the importance of seeking medical care immediately when someone exhibits those symptoms.
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