The estate of a 55-year-old man who died because medical care wasn’t available has been awarded a $45 million jury verdict.
The attorney who represented the family of James R. Sada says Orlando Health Inc. prioritized profit over patient lives.
“This case wasn’t just about one tragic loss,” Stuart Ratzan of Ratzan Weissman & Boldt said. “It’s about a system designed to maximize billing, at the cost of human life.
Ratzan
| Courtesy photo
“Hospitals must be held accountable when they prioritize their bottom line over the people they’re sworn to protect.”
The Orange County Circuit Court jury came back with the $45 million verdict April 9.
According to the complaint filed in 2021, EMS responded to Sada’s home on July 26, 2020, as he was complaining of chest pain. He was taken to Orlando Health’s South Seminole Hospital. And despite EMS telling hospital staff Sada had a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, staff members never told EMS it wasn’t equipped to treat a STEMI patient like Sada or to perform cardiac catheterizations required for a patient like Sada.
STEMI means the patient has arterial blockage that must be timely treated with emergent cardiac catheterization.
Sada then was transferred to Orlando Regional Medical Center via helicopter, but the helicopter didn’t depart SSH for nearly an hour. The family says ground transport to ORMC or to another nearby hospital equipped to treat Sada would have been faster.
Ratzan says that at no point was Sada told of the potential consequences of this delay, nor was he advised of the option to go by ground ambulance to ORMC or a closer, non-network hospital with the proper cardiac care infrastructure.
At ORMC, bag valve mask ventilation and other treatment was used to help Sada breathe, and he was intubated.
“However, due to the unavailability of an ETCO2 adapter to confirm the intubation was successful, defendant Orlando Health’s agents and/or employees elected to remove the breathing tube,” the complaint states. “Now, Mr. Sada could no longer breathe, and his condition rapidly deteriorated. A code blue was called. Attempts to reintubate Mr. Sada failed.
“As a result of Mr. Sada’s untreated myocardial infarction, the delay in getting Mr. Sada to the cath lab, the failure to perform a timely cardiac catheterization for Mr. Sada, the choice to remove Mr. Sada’s breathing tube and the inability to reintubate Mr. Sada, Mr. Sada died at approximately 10 a.m. on the table in the cath lab at ORMC.”
Ratzan says Sada died “not because care wasn’t available, but because a billion-dollar hospital system chose profit over patient safety.” He says Orlando Health falsely advertised that SSH was a Level 1 cardiac center with a 24/7 cath lab.
“In reality, SSH lacked this critical facility but accepted Mr. Sada who was experiencing a life-threatening but treatable heart attack, solely because it was part of the OHI network,” Ratzan said.
The jury found OHI liable for reckless conduct in delaying Sada’s transfer to a percutaneous coronary intervention capable hospital while its helicopter burned fuel for 23 minutes to account for the weight of the patient and the crew despite other PCI-capable hospitals not owned by OHI being just minutes away via ground ambulance.
The jury also ruled OHI’S policies, procedures and transfer systems, designed to attract STEMI patients into their in-network satellite hospitals without PCI capabilities and then transfer them via helicopter to ORMC, were reckless and lacked timely backup transfer systems. It said these delays led to Sada’s death.
Orange County Circuit Court case number 2021-CA-010737-0