Unlicensed Hospital Worker's Wrong Diagnosis Leads To $116 Million Malpractice Verdict

Bob Carroll

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

What may be the largest medical malpractice verdict in Florida's history was handed down on Friday. The victim was misdiagnosed at a local hospital. As a result he is a paraplegic. An explanation for the size of the verdict may be the fact that an unlicensed hospital worker made the critical mistake.

$116M is awarded in stroke suit

TAMPA - A jury on Friday awarded a $116-million medical malpractice verdict to the family of a Tampa man who attorneys argued became a paraplegic after an unlicensed hospital worker misdiagnosed a stroke as sinusitis.

On Aug. 9, 2000, Allan Navarro, now 50, of Tampa went to University Community Hospital Carrollwood campus with nausea, double vision, headaches and an unsteady gate. He was sent home with the diagnosis of sinusitis, attorney Steve Yerrid said, and went on to suffer severe brain swelling. Twenty hours after his initial diagnosis, Navarro was back in the emergency room, getting treated for a stroke.