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Lee Memorial Health System / State of Florida - You Should Be Ashamed!
LEE COUNTY, FL -Lee Memorial Health System has been ordered to pay $30-million to a family after a jury found the hospital violated its own rules and severely disabled a baby boy at birth.
Aaron Edwards cannot walk or talk, and his mother struggles to care for him.
Five years after that jury trial, the hospital hasn’t paid.
Lee Memorial is a public health system and therefore protected by Sovereign Immunity. No matter a jury judgment, the hospital is only required to pay $200,000, unless lawmakers sign a bill forcing them to pay.
In Canon City, Colorado, 2,000 miles from Southwest Florida, Aaron’s smile is the bright spot in his mother Mitzi Roden’s busy world.
“He enjoys doing school work. He enjoys writing stories, and enjoys writing songs. He absolutely enjoys being able to go out and meet people,” Roden said about her son.
Just going out is a challenge for Roden and Aaron. At 14, he needs 24-7 care, is bound to a wheelchair, and can only communicate through a computer.
Roden cares for him in her dog-grooming shop, which doubles as Aaron’s school.
“He’s a spastic quadriplegic,” Roden says.
A jury determined those injuries were caused due to mistakes made at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers during Aaron’s birth.
Against his parent’s pleas, a nurse administered the drug Pitocin to speed up Mitzi’s labor, and forgot to stop the drip hours later.
That put baby Aaron’s body into fetal shock by cutting off his air supply.
“They damaged him for life, and they have never made it right,” Aaron’s attorney Chris Searcy said.
Searcy fought for the family in court, and won a $30-million judgment for Aaron, but because Lee Memorial is protected by Sovereign Immunity, it is only required to pay $200,000 of any settlement.
We asked Lee Memorial officials why they wouldn’t just pay the rest and a spokesperson told NBC2 it was because they didn’t have to.
“Politics. It’s all politics. All I wanted to do is have a healthy child, and what it turned out to be, was politics,” Roden said.
The only way for Aaron to get his money is for the state legislature to pass what’s called a Claims Bill.
Claims Bills are decided on a case-by-case basis and ask lawmakers to make exceptions to Sovereign Immunity.
It’s something Aaron’s family hoped for last year, but his bill never made it past committee in the House of Representatives.
“It’s politics. When you take an injured victim such as Aaron Edwards, they’ve got no socioeconomic clout. They can’t go lobby any legislators,” Searcy said.
That’s not stopping Aaron.
“We are counting on you,” Aaron typed into his computer.
With the help of his computer, he’s pleading for help the only way he can, so he and his mother can get the help they so desperately need.
“I don’t want to be halfway there forever. Please, please help me,” Aaron said through his computer.
After weeks of asking, Lee Memorial Health officials sent us this statement:
“Sovereign immunity is a time honored rule of law intended to balance the needs of the individual with the health and welfare of the community. In this case, and in today’s circumstances, that balance does not support a claims bill that is a staggering 40 times the average for this type of claim when at the same time Lee Memorial Health System is facing massive Medicaid and Medicare cuts. Passing of this claims bill will produce unprecedented economic challenges for the delivery of health care in our community.”
NBC2 asked for clarification on what ‘the average for this type of claim’ was and whether a smaller settlement amount, such as $15-million suggested by the Senate Special Master’s report during last year’s legislative session would change things, and did not receive clarification.
A spokesperson for Lee Memorial told us the hospital had an income of $37-million at the end of its 2010 fiscal year.
Senate President Mike Haridopolous has yet to assign the bill to its proper committee, and the House Civil Justice Subcommittee hasn’t discussed the bill yet.
If either chamber stalls the bill, it dies, and Aaron will have to try again next year.
via nbc-2.com
They have set up a Facebook page for this. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Edwards-Claims-Bill/345470908819925
Mr Goodman, May The World See You For The Scumbag That You Are!
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A wealthy Florida man has set off a firestorm by legally adopting his 42-year-old girlfriend as he prepares for a potentially costly wrongful death suit.
John Goodman, 49, founder of the tony International Polo Club in Wellington, Fla., was involved in a crash on Feb. 12, 2010 that killed 23-year-old Scott Patrick Wilson. Local police say Goodman ran a stop sign while driving with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit in Florida.
While Goodman faces criminal charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident that carry a possible 30-year prison term in a trial set for March 6, he also faces a civil suit from William and Lili Wilson over the death of their son. That trial is set to begin March 27.
In recently released court documents, the Wilsons learned that Goodman had legally adopted his girlfriend Heather Hutchins in October. Attorneys for the Wilsons say it was a blatant move to protect his assets.
“It cannot go unrecognized that [Goodman] chose to adopt his 42-year-old girlfriend as opposed to a needy child,” The Palm Beach Post newspaper quoted family attorney Scott Smith as saying.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley had previously ruled a trust fund Goodman had established for his two minor children could not be considered an asset in any court-rewarded damages to the Wilson family. Now, with Hutchins also considered Goodman’s daughter, she is entitled to one-third of the trust fund, and as an adult over 35 she can begin drawing money from the fund immediately.
Judge Kelley was critical of Goodman’s move in his order granting the Wilson family the right to information regarding the adoption. Kelley said the adoption “border(s) on the surreal,” The Palm Beach Post reported.
“The Court cannot ignore reality or the practical impact of what Mr. Goodman has now done,” Judge Kelley wrote. “The Defendant has effectively diverted a significant portion of the assets of the children’s trust to a person with whom he is intimately involved at a time when his personal assets are largely at risk in this case.”
While Goodman’s move has tongues wagging on the society scene in south Florida, a state adoption expert told WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach that Goodman adopting his girlfriend may not be strictly legal.
“Adoption means the act of creating the legal relationship between parent and child where it did not exist,” adoption attorney Charlotte Danciu told the station.
“Unless you intend to create the parent-child relationship, you are violating the letter of the law.”
Story: Picking your parents: Adult adoption creates new bond
A probate court is expected to rule on the legitimacy of Hutchins, in effect, becoming an heir to Goodman’s children’s trust fund. Goodman’s attorney Dan Bachi told The Palm Beach Post the adoption was only undertaken to stabilize the children’s future through the trust. “It has nothing to do with the lawsuit currently pending against him,” Bachi said.
via http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46226962/ns/today-today_people/t/polo-club-founder-adopts-his—year-old-girlfriend/#.TyqfFtrNmQ9
