"Medical Malpractice"

Published on: September 24, 2025

‘Unsafe Practices’ Allegedly Found at University of Miami Organ Agency. Here’s How Leesfield & Partners Has Represented Victims of Medical Negligence for 49 Years.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this week its plans to decertify Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a major organ procurement organization (OPO) in Miami, following its federal investigation that allegedly uncovered years of “unsafe practices.”

The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is a division of the University of Miami Health System and is purported to service hospitals across South Florida and the Bahamas. Life Alliance is one of 55 nonprofits designated by the federal government that coordinates the transplantation of organs around the country. They are regulated by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, according to local media reporting.

In addition to unsafe practices, the investigation revealed “poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors.”

Published on: July 28, 2025

Flesh-eating bacteria in Florida. What to Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

At least four people have died as the result of injuries related to flesh-eating bacteria in 2025, according to reporting from local media.

The data, which comes from the Florida Department of Health, was updated on Friday, July 11, and shows that at least one person died in each of the following counties:

Bay County

Published on: May 27, 2025

Home Healthcare Nurse in Florida Accused of Abusing Patient. How Leesfield & Partners has Represented Victims and Survivors in the State for Decades.

By Leesfield & Partners

A home health nurse in Florida was accused of taping the mouth of her “nonverbal” patient and repeatedly ripping it off, according to recent reporting from local media.

Nia Ayers, 24, was charged with aggravated abuse of the elderly or disabled after turning herself in on May 7, The Miami Herald reported this week.

The incident, involving an 18-year-old patient who investigators say “is completely unable tot defend herself or cry out for help,” was reported to the St. Cloud Police Department by the patient’s mother. The mother checked home camera footage after noticing cuts and scrapes around the patient’s mouth and on her eyelids.

Published on: February 19, 2025

Florida Doctor Faces Complaints After Man Dies Following Cosmetic Procedure. What to Know.

By Leesfield & Partners

A doctor is facing complaints after a man was left with holes in his chest muscle and later died due to cosmetic procedure, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The administrative complaint against the Fort Lauderdale doctor claims that “the patient ultimately died as a result” of the liposuction, which allegedly left perforations throughout the 58-year-old’s chest. The procedure involved VASER, a type of ultrasound with vibration amplification of sound at resonance in January 2021. The patient then returned in 2022 “for a repeat,” according to reporting from the Miami Herald this week.

Repetitive VASER-assisted liposuction comes with risks such as infection, bleeding, never damage and scarring, which can cause perforation. The complaint alleges that the doctor “failed to document any discussion” with the patient about the additional risks associated with a repeated procedure.

Published on: January 14, 2025

You Were the Victim of Medical Malpractice in Florida. What Are Your Options?

By Leesfield & Partners

With 48 years of experience in personal injury law, Leesfield & Partners has successfully represented victims in medical malpractice cases that could easily fuel anyone’s iatrophobia.

From negligent cruise ship doctors who searched the internet for what to do after they ignored a black box warning label medicine administered to a patient to an obstetrician who used controversial techniques on a laboring mother, Leesfield & Partners has witnessed some of the most egregious medical negligence cases imaginable.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, it’s important to know what your options are and where to turn to for help.

Published on: October 22, 2024

Orlando NICU accused of covering up injury that paralyzed newborn baby, lawsuit says

By Leesfield & Partners

A family of a baby girl whose neck was broken—resulting in a spinal cord injury that caused paralysis—is now suing the Orlando facility following her death, claiming they tried to cover up the baby’s injury in a new medical malpractice case.

Jahxy Peets was born about three months early at the Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies where she was intubated and admitted to the NICU in June 2022. While there, a nurse allegedly broke the 2-week-old baby’s neck and placed her back in her incubator without alerting other staff or medical professionals. The break caused a “debilitating spinal cord injury” that left the newborn paralyzed.

Other staff later noticed that the baby was not moving her arms or legs. Jahxy stopped breathing on her own and her organs began shutting down, her parents’ attorneys told local media. A June 29, 2022, MRI revealed the injury. The family’s attorneys claim that there was an attempted cover-up to hide Jahxy’s injuries.

Published on: July 12, 2021

Leesfield & Partners, leads the nation in shipboard medical negligence cases

By Leesfield & Partners

Once again, the team at Leesfield & Partners has achieved important success for passengers who become ill or otherwise require evacuation from cruise ships for medical needs.

In the matter of the Estate of Jeffrey Eisenman v. Carnival Cruise Lines, former Chief Judge James Lawrence King has denied the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss and further denied defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment against plaintiffs’ claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jeffrey Eisenman was seriously ill while ship was docked at port. The family purchased evacuation insurance and pleaded with the Captain and medical crew to transport Mr. Eisenman to a location with adequate medical facilities. The cruise line refused to evacuate and set sail for Puerto Rico, 21 hours away. Mr. Eisenman died 14 hours later during the voyage. His family was grief-stricken. To make matters worse, the cruise line refused to have Mr. Eiseman’s body removed from the ship, forcing family members to stay onboard with their deceased father for the entire cruise. The Eiseman case joins five other seven figure recent results obtained by the firm for failures to provide adequate medical care or otherwise make proper arrangements to obtain appropriate medical attention. These failures resulted in passenger deaths, and life altering conditions, which were avoidable and unnecessary.

Additional cases include:

Published on: November 10, 2017

Victims of Medical Malpractice agree to multi-million dollar settlements

By Leesfield & Partners

Turned down by other law firms, a young widow whose husband had been abhorrently ignored by ER doctors at a Florida Hospital turned to Leesfield & Partners for help. Ten months later, Leesfield & Partners was able to secure a multi-million dollar settlement during the claim’s pre-suit period, for the loss of her husband and for her young son’s loss of his father.

Earlier this year, the firm reached another multi-million dollar settlement on behalf of an adolescent girl whose doctor failed to recognize that his patient had sustained a stroke. The doctor’s unbelievable failure to diagnose caused delay in administering known effective treatment. Due to this physician’s negligence, our 17-year-old client was left with permanent cerebral sequelae which have drastically altered the quality of the remainder of her life.

These catastrophic medical malpractice cases were the main target of previous Administrations who actively sought (and succeeded to) limit the recovery of medical malpractice victims through arbitrary and unconstitutional laws. Indeed, since 2003, Justice for medical malpractice victims has been very hard to obtain due to insurance company-friendly laws. Governor Jeb Bush at the time forced the passage of statutory caps for plaintiffs who had been victims of medical malpractice, limiting the monetary compensation they rightfully deserved. The preeminent argument was that malpractice insurance premiums for Florida doctors were skyrocketing and causing good doctors to flee the state as a consequence.

Published on: April 8, 2016

Creative Lawyering Yields Another Great Result for Injured Child

By Leesfield & Partners

The vast majority of personal injury victims contact a lawyer intending to make claims against a specific entity for a specific wrongdoing. The victims often evaluate their case and form their own theories of liability before they are ever guided by an experienced trial lawyer. Unfortunately, many lawyers then evaluate cases based on their clients’ impressions without broadening their imagination and looking at the entire picture.

Our firm was recently contacted by a mother in reference to a potential medical malpractice case for her 12-year-old son. Our client’s concern was that her son underwent surgery to repair his fractured femur (thigh bone) with metal rods, and the metal rods ultimately broke free from the bone, requiring a painful second surgery. Our client thought this complication occurred because the first surgery was done negligently. Our firm investigated and concluded that the complication was likely an inherent risk of surgery rather than negligence.

For many lawyers, the evaluation would have ended there. However, our firm inquired further and asked how the boy’s leg was fractured. Our client believed that was a dead end. She explained that the injury occurred when a 13-year-old girl accidentally fell on him at the girl’s house. As we learned more, it was discovered that the girl, who was much larger than the boy, had been physically harassing him for several days with unwanted horseplay. The girl’s father, who was supposed to be supervising them, knew of this abuse and failed to prevent it or separate the children. Our firm made a claim against the father’s homeowner’s insurance policy under a Negligent Supervision theory. Within just days of receiving our lawsuit, the insurance carrier offered their full policy limits of $300,000, to compensate our client’s son.

Published on: March 31, 2016

Pharmacy Malpractice, Medication Error – Trust, but verify

By Leesfield & Partners

As consumers of so many goods and services in our day-to-day lives, it is only natural that we have become accustomed to accepting – without thinking twice – whatever goods and services are provided to us. We trust that those who provide us with what we consume are acting responsibly, have exercised due diligence, and are in fact providing us with whatever it is we have specifically requested and expect to receive. Throughout our day, we constantly ingest products without hesitation, rarely stopping to think whether we may be placing harmful products into our bodies.

The level of trust that we have in others as consumers may be even higher when dealing with and receiving goods from trained professionals. One example: Pharmacists. Naturally, when we pick up prescription medications at our local pharmacies, we fully expect that these professionals will always give us exactly what has been prescribed to us by our doctors. Of course, this is normally the case.

However, our law firm has dealt with several unfortunate occasions where pharmacies – including the largest, most nationally-recognized stores – have provided our clients with the wrong prescriptions. In these instances, these folks have gone on to consume whatever medication was wrongfully given to them, never imagining that a mistake of this magnitude could possibly occur. They have suffered permanent injuries as a result, either caused by the wrongful medication itself, or from not treating the medical condition for which they were prescribed medication in the first place.