This article, a news report from the Tampa Bay Times published in December 2013, details a significant medical negligence lawsuit resulting in a more than $13 million jury award for a Pasco man. The case involved Arcadio Hernandez, represented by attorney Steven Deutsch of Deutsch Blumberg & Caballero, P.A. The lawsuit stemmed from a misdiagnosis of pink eye at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in July 2010, where a physician’s assistant and a supervising doctor allegedly overlooked Hernandez’s true condition. Steven Deutsch successfully argued that had Hernandez’s actual condition—an aneurysm—been properly diagnosed at that time, he would not have suffered the permanent mental and physical disabilities that resulted from the aneurysm bursting months later.
The jury found the physician’s assistant, the supervising doctor, and the hospital each 30 percent negligent, while also assigning 10 percent negligence to Hernandez himself, which will reduce the final award to approximately $12 million. Steven Deutsch emphasized that this substantial award is crucial for providing Arcadio Hernandez with the lifelong medical care he will require, stating, “It was a clean, exemplary case. The jury did its duty, and justice was done.” The defense had contended the initial diagnosis was correct given the symptoms and challenged inconsistencies in Hernandez’s testimony. This verdict underscores the firm’s relentless pursuit of justice for victims of medical misdiagnosis, particularly those resulting in catastrophic, preventable harm.
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