Florida Injury Attorney Blog

Florida’s Department of Children and Families says that a Broward psychiatrist had prescribed a powerful drug that the Food and Drug Administration had linked to an increased risk of suicide in kids to a 7-year-old boy. Gabriel Myers, hanged himself in a shower at his foster home.

The Broward boy may have been taking up to three of the four psychiatric drugs prescribed to him at the time of his suicide. Three of the drugs prescribed to him came with FDA “black box” label warnings cautioning about children’s safety when using the drugs. Three of the drugs are not approved to be administered to young children, although they are used for “off label” purposes, which allow doctors to prescribe the drug even without formal approval.

Dr. Sohail Punjwani, the psychiatrist who may have treated Gabriel, had reportedly been included on a list of doctors in Florida that the Agency for Health Care Administration had red-flagged for engaging in prescribing practices that were “problematic." His name was on the list during every quarter that regulators have monitored the prescription of psychotropic drugs.

About 300-400 of Florida’s 17,000 doctors that prescribe drugs to kids on Medicaid are included on the list. Punjwani says he doesn’t remember Myers, but that he may have been one of a number of people to treat the boy. He says that anti-psychotic drugs are routinely used to treat insomnia and mood instability.

Also, per Florida law, a judge or a parent must give consent before a foster child can take a psychotropic drug. Broward Circuit Judge Lisa Porter approved Myer’s medications even though a court-appointed guardian disagreed.

The Miami Herald reports that it has seen records indicating that an older boy may have sexually molested Myers. Last Thursday, after getting into an argument with his foster dad’s 19-year-old son, Myers went into a bathroom and used a detachable showerhead to hang himself.

The 7-year-old had been prescribed the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug Vyvanse, anti-depressant drug Lexapro, and anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. The latter two may have recently replaced with Symbyax.

Florida lawmakers in 2005 had approved a law curbing the use of dangerous, mind-altering drugs on children. Also, doctors are responsible for making sure they provide the correct drugs and their dosage to patients. They also are supposed to make sure that children and other patients are not given drugs that can lead to adverse side effects. Over two million people a year are hospitalized, injured, or killed in the US because of adverse drug reactions.

You or your family may be entitled to Florida medical malpractice or wrongful death compensation.

7-year-old boy prescribed powerful drug before suicide, Sun-Sentinel, April 22, 2009

Related Web Resources:
4000 kids under 10 on mood drugs, The Australian, December 3, 2008

Antidepressant Medications for Kids: Information for Parents and Caregivers, 4therapy.com

Continue reading " Florida Psychiatrist Prescribed Drug Linked to Suicide to 7-Year-Old Broward Boy Who Hanged Himself " »

12-year-old Pulio Chirino died today after he was hit by an SUV. Chirino, a West Palm Beach resident, was riding his bicycle to school when the tragic South Florida motor vehicle accident happened.

According to early police reports, the 5th grader was riding his bike into an intersection when the SUV hit him, dragging him at least 25 feet. Witnesses say he was wearing a helmet but that the protective gear fell off during the auto crash. Chirino was flown to Delray Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses say he may have been crossing against the light, meaning that drivers would have had the right of way at the time of the deadly West Palm Beach bicycle accident. A crossing guard wasn’t available to monitor the intersection.

The law enforcement officer in charge of assigning crossing guards to the area says that students who live in the vicinity where Julio’s family has a home usually go to a different school than the one that the 12-year-old attended. However, it is not uncommon for students in Palm Beach County to go to schools in other zones.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2007 Facts:
• 698 pedalcyclists died in US motor vehicle crashes in 2007.
• 91 fatalities were kids belonging to the 14 and under age group.
• 73 of these 91 deaths were young boys.
• About 43,000 pedalcyclists sustained injuries in US motor vehicle crashes.
• 10,000 of these injury victims were age 14 or younger.

While it is important for Florida motorists to exercise caution when there are pedestrians and bicyclists in the area, they must be extra careful around child pedestrians and bicyclists who may not be as experienced as their adult counterparts when it comes to safely navigating their way across streets and intersections and around motor vehicles.

If your loved one is a child pedestrian or a bicyclist who was seriously injured in a South Florida car crash, you should speak with an experienced West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer about your case.

West Palm Beach boy on way to school struck, killed by SUV, Palm Beach Post, April 14, 2009

Children, 2007 Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, NHTSA

Related Web Resources:
Bicycle Safety, Myths and Facts, American Academy of Pediatrics

Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center

Continue reading " 12-Year-Old West Palm Beach Bicyclist Dies After He is Hit by SUV " »

In Florida, a woman whose now 8-year-old daughter was handcuffed by police in 2005 when she had a tantrum as a kindergartener is suing the Pinellas County School Board and Fairmount Park Elementary for personal injury to a minor. The plaintiff, 27-year-old Inga Akins, says the girl is severely traumatized over the incident and is expected to undergo long-term therapy.

Video footage shows the former St. Petersburg kindergartener in the classroom while making a mess, stepping on a desk, and punching assistant principal Nicole DiBenedetto. St. Petersburg cops are also seen telling the girl to calm down. By this time, however, the girl, then 5, suddenly becomes quiet and sits at the assistant principal’s table. Yet three cops reportedly stood her up, placed her hands behind her back, and put handcuffs on her wrists. The girl is seen screaming.

She was placed in the back of a police car until the State Attorney’s Office told police that they would never prosecute a 5-year-old. The girl was then released to her mother.

Akins’s Florida personal injury lawsuit accuses the defendants of malicious prosecution, negligence, violating her daughter’s civil rights, failing to have the proper procedures instituted for dealing with disciplinary issues, and inadequately training school staffers to deal with such incidents. The complaint also says that the school should have taken steps to calm down the former kindergartener, rather than leaving her with the assistant principal, who she was scared of because of another incident that occurred that year.

Akins had reportedly complained to the school that she didn’t like the way the assistant principal dealt with her daughter and found her to be too harsh. Police had been called to the school to deal with her daughter’s behavior at least once before.

Florida schools are supposed to make sure that the students placed in their care are not harmed in any way. This includes making sure that systems are in place to keep children safe, properly training teachers and other staffers to deal with those placed under their charge, and making sure there is adequate security on the premise so that no one can assault or inflict any other kind of harm on the school kids. Failure to exercise these duties of care can be grounds for a Florida personal injury lawsuit. A premises liability claim might also be made if there were unsafe or hazardous conditions on the school property, such as toxic substances, defective playground equipment, electrical hazards, or other dangers that could cause injury or death to a student.

Lawsuit filed over 2005 Pinellas school handcuff incident, Sun-Times News Group, March 31, 2009

Video shows police handcuffing 5-year-old, St Petersburg TImes, April 22, 2005

Related Web Resources:
Watch the Video

Pinellas County School Board

In Florida, the Department of Children and Families is investigating whether the smothering death of Chrisanto Beltran, a 72-year-old male resident at a Southwest Florida nursing home may have been partially caused by nursing home neglect. Beltran died at the Hidden Oaks Retirement Center last January during an altercation with another resident, 87-year-old Kenneth Knauf. The two men were both Alzheimer’s patients.

According to police, they were fighting over a blanket. While the medical examiner determined that Beltran’s cause of death was asphyxiation by smothering, questions are being raised as to whether inadequate patient supervision contributed to the elderly man’s death. According to the Department of Children and Family’s local spokesperson, one of the patients was supposed to be supervised every 15 minutes.

Not only must US nursing homes make sure that they provide each resident with the proper medical care and attention that they need, but nursing workers are responsible for making sure that patients are not a danger to themselves or others. This may mean providing additional supervision, as well as separating certain patients from the rest of the resident population. When failure to execute these responsibilities leads to injury or death, the Florida nursing home can be held liable for nursing home neglect or wrongful death.

Unfortunately, the deadly incident involving Beltran and Knauf is not that uncommon, especially as findings indicate that there are more mentally ill patients living in US nursing homes today than there were several years ago. Elderly patients are particularly at risk of getting hurt when they are around younger, stronger residents that may not be aware of what they are doing and cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Examples:
• In 2003, a 23-year-old mentally ill nursing home resident was accused of starting a fire that caused the deaths of 16 other patients. She was found incompetent to stand trial.

• In 2006, a 77-year-old male nursing home resident died after his roommate, 62, allegedly beat him with a bathroom towel bar. He too was found incompetent to stand trial.

Deadly nursing home fight may have been result of neglect, News-Press.com, March 13, 2009

Suffocation ruled cause in deadly nursing home fight, NaplesNews.com, January 21, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Nursing home patients endangered by mentally ill, Boston.com, March 22, 2009

Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov

Continue reading " Elderly Florida Nursing Home Resident’s Smothering Death During Fight with Other Resident May Have Been Caused by Nursing Home Neglect " »