University of North Florida Professor Cory Fine’s widow and 10 year-old-son Tyler were awarded $6.2 million dollars by a Gainesville, Florida, jury due to the medical negligence of the nursing staff and radiology technicians at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, on August 11, 2010.
Dr. Fine had undergone a gastric bypass surgery on December 18, 2002, which was uneventful. Several days after the operation he began having problems breathing and was placed on significant amounts of oxygen due to low oxygen saturation levels. Sadly, Shands personnel neglected to monitor Dr. Fine adequately throughout the day of December 23, 2002, and sent him to a CT scan without having his vital signs monitored. Despite Dr. Fine telling the radiology technicians that he would be unable to breathe and would die if he was laid down flat on the machine, they did so anyway. The Shands staff strapped him to the CT table unmonitored and did the scan, which took 4 -5 minutes. When the scan was completed the technicians removed Dr. Fine from the machine and he was dead.
This tragedy was so easily preventable if he had just been monitored with equipment that was readily available to protect patients from exactly this type of medical negligence. This equipment would have only taken seconds to use, yet it was not. This blatant negligence cost Dr. Fine his life, cost Lisa Fine her husband, and cost Tyler his father.
The two-week jury trial was handled by attorneys Frank Ashton and Marc Hardesty of Hardesty, Tyde, Green, Ashton & Clifton P.A. of Jacksonville, Florida. If you or a loved one has been hurt by medical negligence please contact us for a prompt and free consultation.
