Florida Senate - 2009                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 46
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 955920                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  04/06/2009           .                                
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       The Committee on Health Regulation (Bennett) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment 
    2  
    3         In title, delete lines 17 - 81
    4  and insert:
    5         WHEREAS, on April 16, 2003, while in the trauma intensive
    6  care unit at Memorial Regional Hospital, Mr. Otero was taken
    7  during the night shift to the MRI laboratory for a scan to rule
    8  out a nonemergency shoulder injury. Mr. Otero was accompanied by
    9  a nurse and a respiratory therapist to the MRI laboratory, but
   10  was removed from his ventilator at the time he was transported
   11  to the MRI during the night shift when the hospital operates
   12  using significantly fewer staff. He was alert and oriented. Mr.
   13  Otero became panicky during the scan and was given several doses
   14  of a narcotic sedative, Versed, in addition to the narcotic
   15  medication he was already receiving intravenously. Because of
   16  his panicked thrashing, an order for a paralytic drug was also
   17  given. Lawton Tang, M.D., a surgical resident employed by Mt.
   18  Sinai Medical Center and working under the supervision of
   19  attending physicians of the South Broward Hospital District on a
   20  rotation through Memorial Regional Hospital, was not present and
   21  gave the medication orders by telephone, and
   22         WHEREAS, the nurse administered the paralytic drug, which
   23  was inappropriate under the circumstances. When the drug was
   24  given to Mr. Otero, it caused his heart to stop beating
   25  properly, and
   26         WHEREAS, shortly thereafter Raul Otero went into cardiac
   27  arrest, a code was called, and, after a relatively extended
   28  process, Mr. Otero was successfully resuscitated. However, he
   29  was found to be suffering from anoxic encephalopathy, and
   30         WHEREAS, several physicians, including the trauma resident
   31  on duty at the time, testified that Mr. Otero was not stable
   32  enough to be taken from intensive care during the midnight shift
   33  for an elective MRI. In fact, the very next day this practice
   34  was expressly forbidden by then Chief of Trauma, Lawrence
   35  Lottenberg, M.D., and
   36         WHEREAS, Raul Otero is completely incontinent, is
   37  quadriplegic, and cannot speak, and is unable to consistently
   38  follow simple one-step commands. Mr. Otero’s life-care plan was
   39  drafted by Sharon Griffin, Ph.D., and was originally valued in
   40  excess of $20 million. Now that his feeding tube and ventilator
   41  have been removed, the cost of his future care has been revised
   42  to approximately $12 million, and
   43         WHEREAS, the surgical resident, Lawton Tang, M.D., the
   44  resident who gave the telephonic medication orders, and Mt.
   45  Sinai Medical Center, his employer, have settled for $2 million,
   46  and
   47         WHEREAS, the South Broward Hospital District has agreed to
   48  pay $100,000 to Raul Otero and $100,000 to his mother and
   49  primary caregiver, Ana Otero, pursuant to s. 728.28, Florida
   50  Statutes. In addition, the district has agreed to the passage of
   51  a claim bill in the amount of $2 million, NOW, THEREFORE,