Broward Health Medical Center Medical Malpractice
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Broward Health Medical Center is a public 716-bed acute care hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It has served adult and pediatric patients in Broward County for over 85 years. However, the hospital has a history of low patient satisfaction and poor reviews, rating lower than the national average for every care team metric, from communication with doctors and nurses to discharge information. Many reviewers allege serious and lasting issues following surgeries, mistreatment by staff, insensitivity, untimeliness, homophobia, uncleanliness, and more issues.
If you or a loved one has suffered from negligence at Broward Health Medical Center, you may have grounds to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. The medical malpractice attorneys at Freedland Harwin Valori Gander can determine whether you’re eligible to sue and pursue the justice you deserve.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Against Broward Health
Broward Health Medical Center is part of the Broward Health public health system, one of the ten largest in the United States, and operates over 30 health care facilities. The hospital network has faced numerous lawsuits and malpractice claims in the past few decades, with some patients recovering millions of dollars for medical malpractice at hospitals in the Broward system.
If you or a loved one has been injured by medical negligence at Broward Health Medical Center, you may be eligible to file a medical malpractice suit. To prevail in a medical malpractice case in Florida, you must prove it was more likely than not that the medical provider failed to meet its duty of care and caused you harm. You must have another qualified medical professional verify that the health care provider failed to follow established medical protocols and that your injury resulted from that failure.
The statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice case is typically within two years of the incident date or when you discover the injury. However, the law includes a hard deadline of four years from the date of the incident, regardless of when you discover the injury.
Government entities in Florida have sovereign immunity, which provides some protection protection from lawsuits. This includes public hospitals like Broward Health Medical Center. Under Florida Statutes § 768.28, government entities have waived sovereign immunity for employees’ negligence. Thus, if you have suffered harm from medical malpractice by a hospital employee at Broward Health Medical Center, you would have the same right to sue as the patient of a private hospital.
In most medical malpractice cases, you can pursue damages for your financial and intangible losses without limits. In rare cases, you can also recover punitive damages from private health care providers. However, because of the facility’s sovereign immunity, you cannot pursue punitive damages against Broward Health Medical Center, and the total damages recoverable from the hospital are capped at $300,000.
Case Study: Routine Birth Gone Wrong
In one notable case, our client was a 34-year-old wife and mother of three who arrived at Broward Health Medical Center for the birth of her fourth child. Before and during delivery, the health care providers at Broward Health Medical Center were not prepared to manage an obvious complication. As a result, our client bled to death during childbirth.
Our client had a condition known as placenta accreta, which requires a specific plan before proceeding with a cesarean section. We alleged that such a plan was never put into place. When our client began bleeding shortly after her daughter was born, the physicians were unprepared to deal with it. She ultimately bled to death in front of her husband. Our office obtained a $24.5 million verdict for the family in Broward County.
Every hospital is entrusted with implementing policies and procedures to safeguard patients. However, in this instance, deviation from accepted standards of care and a lack of communication between health care providers tragically led to the death of a young mother following childbirth.
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