Florida Hospital Facing Hundreds of Lawsuits over Surgeon’s Allegedly Botched Operations

A Jacksonville hospital now faces hundreds of lawsuits alleging that a surgeon who reportedly had palsy caused serious injuries and corrective surgeries from 2016 to 2020.

The Florida Times-Union newspaper and NBC News recently reported that at least 348 suits have been filed, many more are expected, and more than $6 million has already been paid on claims over problems allegedly caused by Dr. Richard Heekin, an orthopedist who retired in 2020. The suits have also named Heekin’s clinic and Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville.

As early as 2016, patients said they noticed Heekin’s hands shaking, slurred speech, unsteady walking, involuntary body movements, mood swings, and impaired judgment, according to the lawsuits, the news sites reported. Palsy is a neurological disorder that can cause those symptoms as well as other impairments.

The lawsuits note that patients suffered ruptured tendons, broken femurs, dislocated bones, misplaced prosthetic knees and a death. A 70-year-old woman died in 2018 when a hip replacement that lasted longer than normal after Heekin allegedly fractured her femur during surgery, NBC has reported. The reports did not indicate if Heekin treated workers’ compensation-covered patients, but court records show he performed knee surgery on injured workers in the past.

The lawsuit complaints claim that the hospital ignored alarm bells from staff members and patients that Heekin was experiencing symptoms from the worsening condition.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center “not only should have known, but in fact had actual knowledge of Heekin’s condition and his impairment, as several physicians, nurses and patients voiced their concerns to SVMC on numerous occasions,” one lawsuit reads. “Despite the overwhelming evidence and knowledge of Heekin’s condition, the danger he posed to his patients, and the harm being caused to his patients, SVMC continued to allow Heekin to perform surgery, re-credentialed and retained Heekin to schedule, coordinate and perform a high volume of surgeries and revision surgeries at SVMC.”

The physician retired in 2020 and agreed to surrender his medical license the next year, in order to end a Florida Department of Health investigation, the news outlets reported.

One patient described her ordeal.

“After that surgery, I continued to fall, which was the reason I had gone to see Dr. Heekin in the first place,” Sandra Coburn, 64, told the Times-Union. She said she had to go back to Heekin for a second surgery in April 2019.

The revision surgery “caused an unacceptably lengthened left lower extremity,” according to her lawsuit.

Heekin, his attorneys, and lawyers for the hospital did not respond to request for comment from the news outlets.

The hospital was founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1916 and is part of the Ascension health system, a non-profit Catholic health organization with sites in 19 states.

Topics Lawsuits Florida