The family of a North Miami nursing home resident who contracted coronavirus is preparing to sue the facility for failing to provide adequate screening and precautionary measures.
Attorney Jack Paris, a partner at the Cochran firm in Miami, sent a May 4 letter to the North Dade Nursing & Rehabilitation Center that alleges resident JW Thomas was deprived of his rights under Florida Statute 400. Thomas could only have contracted the virus from a staff member, since he arrived at the facility while it was under lockdown orders and no visitations were allowed, according to Paris.
Thomas tested positive for the virus in the second half of April, he said. Seven residents of the North Miami facility have died due to coronavirus, according to a Florida Department of Health tally.
Miami attorney Jack Paris
The letter is an initial step prior to a formal filing of a civil lawsuit. It comes in the wake of the Florida Health Care Association’s executive director, J. Emmett Reed, urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to extend sovereign legal immunity to health care workers and health facilities that have been struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Such an order would extend legal immunity to health care professionals for omissions or decisions that result from staff or resource shortages experienced during the statewide emergency. It would not apply to criminal actions, major negligence or reckless behavior.
“This would provide the necessary liability protection to health care professionals and health care facilities to provide services for any individual in the state during the emergency rule without fear of reprisal for providing care to their patients during this difficult time,” Reed said in a letter to DeSantis.
It’s unclear that the governor or the legislature could provide such immunity, according to Paris, since it would amount to an eradication of the Florida statute granting nursing home residents rights to adequate care and protections against abuse.
“They are a completely vulnerable, helpless part of the population,” Paris told the Florida Record.
If facilities obtained such legal immunity for the COVID-19 crisis retroactively, they might ultimately attempt additional protections in the future, such as an extension of immunity protection to falls that occur at a long-term care facility or a failure to provide the correct medication, he said.
The letter seeks to kick-start a pre-lawsuit screening process that is required for a suit involving a nursing home, according to Paris. The process may also involve mediation.
“You would have to start with the 75-day clock before you can file litigation,” he said.