A Florida judge has ruled that plaintiffs can seek punitive damages against St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Inc. (SVMC) in a lawsuit involving the medical center and former orthopedic surgeon, R. David Heekin, M.D.
Judge Okays Punitive Damages in Ortho Surgeon Lawsuit
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Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Dr. Heekin and the medical center alleging that Dr. Heekin caused countless injuries because he performed operations while suffering from a neurological condition. For OTW’s previous coverage of the litigation, see “Lawsuits Pile Up Against Former Florida Orthopedic Surgeon.”
A Florida judge has now said that the plaintiffs may seek punitive damages against SVMC. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for extreme wrongdoing and to deter others from engaging in similar conduct.
Quoting directly from court documents, “a corporation is directly liable for punitive damages based on the willful and malicious actions of its managing agents.” A managing agent is more than a mid-level manager. It is an individual such as a president, primary owner, or other with high-level policymaking authority.
SVMC tried to argue that its SVP and CMO were not “managing agents for purposes of holding SVMC directly liable for punitive damages and that their distinguished titles belie their more humble roles as middle managers.” The court was not persuaded.
Additionally, the court found that the plaintiffs also showed that SVMC, through the actions of its managing agents, “was personally guilty of intentional misconduct or gross negligence.” It pointed to evidence that SVMC knew or should have known of Dr. Heekin’s worsening physical and mental condition.
In support of their motion, the plaintiffs provided 67 exhibits and citations to the depositions of 13 witnesses. According to court documents, included with the motion were affidavits from “six board-certified orthopedic surgeons regarding specific deviations from the standard of care of sixty-one (61) patients who had surgery by R. David Heekin, M.D. at SVMC.”
A number of text messages were also included as evidence including text messages from SVMC employees “regarding complaints and concerns about Dr. Heekin.” Other evidence included medical records from patients who suffered “adverse outcomes after surgery performed by Dr. Heekin at SVMC.”
Litigation in the matter is ongoing.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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