Florida Woman Awarded $38M In Spinal Surgery Medical Malpractice Suit

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

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Jeffrey Johnson

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

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Mary Martin

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Mary Martin has been a legal writer and editor for over 20 years, responsible for ensuring that content is straightforward, correct, and helpful for the consumer. In addition, she worked on writing monthly newsletter columns for media, lawyers, and consumers. Ms. Martin also has experience with internal staff and HR operations. Mary was employed for almost 30 years by the nationwide legal publi...

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

Advertiser Disclosure

It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

A Florida woman was awarded $38 million after a doctor with a history of medical malpractice lawsuits injected the wrong drug into her spine which left her unable to walk and in excruciating pain.

How a sports therapist’s life changed forever

According to an article in the Miami Herald, Amanda Slavin, a former sports therapist, went to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami for spinal surgery. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Mario Nanes, operated on her to repair a herniated disk. However, something went wrong and he had to perform another surgery to repair a spinal fluid leak. In doing so, he injected Slavin with methylene blue, a chemical dye, in order to locate the leak. However, the chemical’s packaging, which the hospital’s pharmacy management firm threw away, clearly stated that it should not be used in this type of surgery. As a result, Slavin developed a neurological disability known as arachnoiditis – a debilitating condition characterized by severe stinging and burning pain and neurological problems.

She sued the surgeon, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the hospital’s pharmacy management firm, McKesson Medication Management. Although the hospital settled their part of Slavin’s lawsuit for $7 million, Nanes and McKesson decided to take the case to trial – a move they now likely regret.

9th medical malpractice lawsuit against Nanes

A jury awarded Slavin $31 million. It found that the hospital was 18% liable, the pharmacy management firm was 14% liable and the Dr. Nanes was 68% liable. Ironically, this was the 9th medical malpractice claim of Nanes’s career.

In addition, the Florida Department of Health fined Nanes $10,000 – the maximum amount possible – for ”failure to practice medicine with that level of care, skill and treatment which is recognized by a reasonably prudent similar physician as being acceptable under similar conditions after Slavin reported him. She, and others that Nanes operated on, have said that Nanes’s license should have been revoked years ago.

Medical mistakes happen. That’s just a fact of life. However, when those medical mistakes are caused by someone’s negligence, the law provides that the victim is entitled to compensation. An experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney will be able to evaluate your situation.

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Jeffrey Johnson

Insurance Lawyer

Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

Insurance Lawyer

Mary Martin

Published Legal Expert

Mary Martin has been a legal writer and editor for over 20 years, responsible for ensuring that content is straightforward, correct, and helpful for the consumer. In addition, she worked on writing monthly newsletter columns for media, lawyers, and consumers. Ms. Martin also has experience with internal staff and HR operations. Mary was employed for almost 30 years by the nationwide legal publi...

Published Legal Expert

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

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