Florida Senate - 2009                               CS for SB 46
       
       
       
       By the Committee on Health Regulation; and Senator Ring
       
       
       
       
       588-04441-09                                            200946c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act for the relief of Raul Otero by the South
    3         Broward Hospital District; providing for an
    4         appropriation to compensate him for injuries sustained
    5         as a result of the negligence of Memorial Regional
    6         Hospital; providing a limitation on the payment of
    7         fees and costs; providing an effective date.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, on March 28, 2003, 18-year-old Raul Otero was
   10  involved in a motorcycle accident, and was seriously injured and
   11  taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.
   12  Memorial Regional Hospital is a public hospital owned by the
   13  South Broward Hospital District. His injuries resulted in an
   14  above-the-knee amputation of his left leg and a spleenectomy.
   15  The insurer of the at-fault driver tendered $1 million, which
   16  was the driver’s policy limit, and
   17         WHEREAS, on April 16, 2003, while in the trauma intensive
   18  care unit at Memorial Regional Hospital, Mr. Otero was taken
   19  during the night shift to the MRI laboratory for a scan to rule
   20  out a nonemergency shoulder injury. Mr. Otero was accompanied by
   21  a nurse and a respiratory therapist to the MRI laboratory, but
   22  was removed from his ventilator at the time he was transported
   23  to the MRI during the night shift when the hospital operates
   24  using significantly fewer staff. He was alert and oriented. Mr.
   25  Otero became panicky during the scan and was given several doses
   26  of a narcotic sedative, Versed, in addition to the narcotic
   27  medication he was already receiving intravenously. Because of
   28  his panicked thrashing, an order for a paralytic drug was also
   29  given. Lawton Tang, M.D., a surgical resident employed by Mt.
   30  Sinai Medical Center and working under the supervision of
   31  attending physicians of the South Broward Hospital District on a
   32  rotation through Memorial Regional Hospital, was not present and
   33  gave the medication orders by telephone, and
   34         WHEREAS, the nurse administered the paralytic drug, which
   35  was inappropriate under the circumstances. When the drug was
   36  given to Mr. Otero, it caused his heart to stop beating
   37  properly, and
   38         WHEREAS, shortly thereafter Raul Otero went into cardiac
   39  arrest, a code was called, and, after a relatively extended
   40  process, Mr. Otero was successfully resuscitated. However, he
   41  was found to be suffering from anoxic encephalopathy, and
   42         WHEREAS, several physicians, including the trauma resident
   43  on duty at the time, testified that Mr. Otero was not stable
   44  enough to be taken from intensive care during the midnight shift
   45  for an elective MRI. In fact, the very next day this practice
   46  was expressly forbidden by then Chief of Trauma, Lawrence
   47  Lottenberg, M.D., and
   48         WHEREAS, Raul Otero is completely incontinent, is
   49  quadriplegic, and cannot speak, and is unable to consistently
   50  follow simple one-step commands. Mr. Otero’s life-care plan was
   51  drafted by Sharon Griffin, Ph.D., and was originally valued in
   52  excess of $20 million. Now that his feeding tube and ventilator
   53  have been removed, the cost of his future care has been revised
   54  to approximately $12 million, and
   55         WHEREAS, the surgical resident, Lawton Tang, M.D., the
   56  resident who gave the telephonic medication orders, and Mt.
   57  Sinai Medical Center, his employer, have settled for $2 million,
   58  and
   59         WHEREAS, the South Broward Hospital District has agreed to
   60  pay $100,000 to Raul Otero and $100,000 to his mother and
   61  primary caregiver, Ana Otero, pursuant to s. 728.28, Florida
   62  Statutes. In addition, the district has agreed to the passage of
   63  a claim bill in the amount of $2 million, NOW, THEREFORE,
   64  
   65  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   66  
   67         Section 1. The facts stated in the preamble to this act are
   68  found and declared to be true.
   69         Section 2. The South Broward Hospital District is
   70  authorized and directed to appropriate from funds of the
   71  district not otherwise appropriated and to draw a warrant in the
   72  sum of $2 million payable to Raul Otero as compensation for
   73  injuries and damages sustained.
   74         Section 3. The amount awarded in this act is intended to
   75  provide the sole compensation for all present and future claims
   76  arising out of the factual situation described in this act which
   77  resulted in injury to Raul Otero. The total amount paid for
   78  attorney’s fees, lobbying fees, costs, and other similar
   79  expenses relating to the adoption of this act may not exceed 25
   80  percent of the total amount awarded under this act.
   81         Section 4. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.