Brian Brown, a 19-year old who was set to move to California next week on a football scholarship, was shot during a drug deal gone wrong. Brown was taken to Jackson North Medical Center by his girlfriend where he collapsed to the floor after pleading for help. It appears that instead of stabilizing him, medical staff wheeled him away until 911 was called so that he could be transferred to another facility.
According to attorney Bob Kelley, this period of waiting may have cost Brown his life. If an effort had been made to try to stop the bleeding or otherwise tend to his fatal wounds, Brown might still be alive today. For now, Florida law prevents individuals from filing a medical malpractice lawsuit for several months after a person’s death, so the Brown family’s attorneys will be collecting evidence in the meantime.
In a public statement, the Jackson Health System said that Florida law requires trauma-level injuries to be treated at trauma centers and, until a patient is transferred, he or she must be stabilized. Unfortunately, this does not appear to have been the case for Brown.
Police apprehended the perpetrator, Ed Lamarre, who confessed to the shooting and is now in jail facing a second-degree murder charge.
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Medical malpractice is one of the leading causes of preventable death in America, leading to hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths per year. When healthcare practitioners fail to uphold the high standard of care to which they are held, injured victims and their families have a right to pursue just compensation. At Kelley/Uustal, we stay abreast of all relevant laws, legislative acts, and regulations that might have an impact on your case.
