Thanks for Florida's new "malpractice reform" laws, the hospital probably figured she wouldn't find a lawyer to take her case. Fortunately, she has:
Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.
The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.
"I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this," Mejia said.
Her attorney, Judy Hyman wrote ORHS a letter saying, according to the Florida statute, "The Patients Right To Know About Adverse Medical Incidents Act," the hospital must give her the records....
That's the sticking point, the interpretation of the Patients Right To Know act, a constitutional amendment Florida voters passed a little more than a year ago.
Here is some maddening commentary from the Florida Medical Association at the time the new laws were passed:
"It has been a long and hard battle, but we never lost confidence that Amendment 3 was the best way to protect patients in Florida who have been medically injured," said FMA President Dennis Agliano, M.D. "Despite a scare-tactic campaign by the trial lawyers, voters were not fooled. The voice of Floridians is loud and clear tonight as they send a resounding message to the greedy trial lawyers: 'Enough is enough.' "
By an even larger margin -- 80.7% to 19.3% -- Florida voters approved Amendment 7, Patients' Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents, which would give patients the right to review records of adverse medical incidents at facilities and by providers, including those that cause injury or death, provided patient identities are not disclosed.
Voters also approved, 70.4% to 29.6%, Amendment 8, Public Protection from Repeated Medical Malpractice, which "prohibits medical doctors who have been found to have committed three or more incidents of medical malpractice from being licensed to practice medicine in Florida."
"We agree with the spirit of these two initiatives, but they will ultimately do harm to Florida's patients," said Rick Lentz, M.D., FMA's immediate past president. "We are now in a position where we will have to work diligently with the Legislature to insure these amendments do not aggravate the access crisis in Florida. If not properly handled by the Legislature, Florida's physicians and patients are poised to suffer many unintended consequences."