Todd Falzone of Kelley Uustal in Fort Lauderdale. Courtesy photo.

Kelley Uustal partner Todd Falzone and associate Karina Rodrigues in Fort Lauderdale teamed with Michael Elstein of the Elstein Law Firm in Wellington to negotiate a $2 million settlement for a widow who claimed her husband died because a radiologist didn't properly look at his CT scan.

The case settled days before trial, after the plaintiffs team found rare "smoking gun" data to bolster their claims.

Retired 64-year old Leonard Burstein banged his head on a filing cabinet after losing his balance while tying his shoes in January 2015.

His head was bleeding. For Burstein, who was on blood-thinning medication Coumadin for a heart condition, there was real risk of a brain hemorrhage because of excess bleeding.

Paramedics took Burstein to West Boca Medical Center Inc., where the doctor ordered a CT scan. The scan generated hundreds of 3D images of his brain, shown in tiny increments from top to bottom and back to front.

"You know when you have a ham for a holiday and you cut it up in slices?" Falzone said. "That's what a CT scan does. It takes pictures in those slices."

Doctors electronically transmitted 691 images to radiologist Steven Fuhr, who was at a different hospital owned by the same company, defendant Tenet Healthcare Corp.

The images included brain and neck CT scans, and a scan from years earlier when Burstein reported migraines. And according to Falzone, they came with written instructions that Burstein was on Coumadin — meaning the radiologist had to watch out for signs of a brain hemorrhage.

But instead, Burstein's wife claimed Fuhr rushed his report, which said Burstein had no bleeding inside his brain. Relying on that, the emergency room doctors discharged him about an hour and 15 minutes after he'd arrived.

"Nowadays, in these emergency rooms, it's all about speed: how fast they get you in, how fast they get you out," Falzone said. "In fact, they have billboards advertising how fast they are."

When Burstein got home, his health deteriorated, according to his wife of 38 years, who called for help again when he became shaky and weak, and slumped on the ground.

"The same rescue truck shows up and they say, 'What the hell are you doing here?' " Falzone said. " They look at him and they see he doesn't look right, and his blood pressure is all wrong."

This time, Burstein went to the Delray Medical Center, which again relied on the radiologist's report, and discounted the possibility of a brain hemorrhage. About an hour later, Burstein began to vomit and eventually lost consciousness. After another CT scan, a different radiologist discovered Burstein had massive internal bleeding in his brain, but it was too late to save him.

Burstein died the next day, according to the resulting lawsuit, which accused West Boca Medical Center, Tenet Healthcare, Fuhr and his employer Sheridan Radiology Services of South Florida Inc. of negligence and vicarious liability.

Falzone said he and Elstein were shocked when they saw the original CT scan.

"I'm not a radiologist, but I can clearly see on dozens of the images of the CT that there's bleeding inside his brain. It's not subtle,' " Falzone said. " And what's really upsetting is that on the scan, the area inside his brain where it's bleeding is directly below the area where there's a big bump on his head."

Plaintiffs experts claimed that if the radiologist had noticed the brain bleed, doctors could have reversed it in minutes, while Fuhr denied any wrongdoing and insisted he viewed each image twice.

Defense attorneys Robert Paradela of Wicker Smith, Kenneth Morgan Jr. of Billing Cochran Lyles in Fort Lauderdale and Brian Murry of Paul Knopf Bigger in Winter Park did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. Their clients denied any wrongdoing, alleged Burstein's own negligence contributed to his death and claimed the lawsuit was barred under the statute of limitations.

'Insanity'

The plaintiff's case transformed once they subpoenaed the head of radiology and had him print out a record of every keystroke Fuhr made on his computer that day, including from the moment he opened Burstein's images.

"That entire process for 691 images took a total of six minutes and 26 seconds," Falzone said. "If we were to assume that he did nothing but open them up and immediately start reading them, he spent half a second looking at each image. That's two images per second, and that is insanity."

Falzone said he's handled several cases involving the same companies and issues, which he suspects are happening because radiologists are pressured to read scans as quickly as possible.

"There's pressure being applied to them to go faster, and the problem with that is these reads are relied on by doctors who don't read the films themselves," Falzone said. "The way to protect yourself is to question the doctors at length about the films and see if they will look at the films themselves."

Falzone said his client accepted a $500,000 offer from the radiology company and a $1.5 million offer from the hospital to avoid reliving what happened. And without her husband's retirement money, she'd had to work two jobs.

"She's never going to get over it," Falzone said. "He was the love of her life and, to this day, if you bring him up and talk about him, she cries."

Cases like this are getting scarce, according to Falzone, who said new laws limiting medical malpractice claims have resulted in less claims in Florida than ever before. That, he argues, means hospitals and doctors feel they "have no one watching them."

"They're not doing it on purpose, but it makes them psychologically less careful if they don't think that there's a real threat from a lawyer," Falzone said. "We're sort of a public safety arm, because if people are afraid they're going to get sued, they're more careful."

 

Case No.: 50-2017-CA-003943

Case: Georgie Burstein v. West Boca Medical Center

Description: Wrongful death

Filing date: April 7, 2017

Settlement date: Nov. 14, 2019

Judge: Palm Beach Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley

Plaintiffs attorneys: Todd Falzone and Karina Rodrigues, Kelley Uustal, Fort Lauderdale; Michael Elstein, Elstein Law Firm, Wellington

Defense attorneys: Robert Paradela of Wicker Smith, Fort Lauderdale; Kenneth Morgan Jr., Billing Cochran Lyles, Fort Lauderdale; Bryan Murry, Paul Knopf Bigger, Winter Park

Settlement amount: $2 million

 

More verdicts and settlements:

Miami Lawyer Negotiates $1.25 Million Settlement Over Hit-and-Run Death

'I Thought I Was Going To Get Killed': South Florida Lawyers Win $4M Against Disney Cruise Line