News

THE MIAMI HERALD, January 29, 1986
Metro Extra
Digest

"Doctor's delay leads jury to award $2 million"

by Robert L. Steinback

A Broward jury awarded $2 million to a 25- year old paraplegic Tuesday, determining that an emergency room doctor at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood took too long to treat him after a 1978 motorcycle accident.

"I'm just really happy," said David Joseph Lee, who was an Oakland Park resident when he was struck by a car at Hollywood Boulevard and Park Avenue on April 14, 1978. The award "will make things a little bit easier on me, but when you have to live with a chair for the rest of your life, there's really no compensation." He said.

The jury in Circuit Judge Robert Abel Jr.'s court found that Bret Whipple, one of two emergency room doctors on duty the afternoon of the accident had taken more than half an hour to treat Lee after paramedics rushed Lee to Memorial. Lee suffered a fractured vertebra.

Lee's attorneys, Scott Schlesinger and Gerry Cohen, argued that hospital records indicated Lee was moving his arms and legs when he arrived

"The EMS (emergency medial services) people were out there pronto, got this young man onto a backboard and zoomed him to the hospital in six or seven minutes," Schlesinger said. "You get him to the hospital and no doctor sees him for 45 minutes. Why not just leave him in the street?"

The jury found that Whipple's employer, Dr. Richard Dillerson, and the South Broward Hospital District, which operates Memorial and hired Dillerson's firm to run the emergency room, also were liable.

Whipple's attorney John Neely, said no decision has been made on whether to appeal. He disagreed with Abel's decision not to admit into the trial the fact that Lee pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April 1981 and was sentenced to four years in prison, while allowing the jury to hear that Whipple was found guilt of possession of illegal drugs some time after Lee's accident.

He also disagreed with the jury's verdict.

"The question was whether (Lee) was paralyzed from injuries from the accident or whether he was paralyzed from negligence after the accident," Neely said. "I think there was compelling evidence that he was paralyzed from the point of time of the accident."

Lee now lives on a farm in Batesville, Ark.

Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. represents clients throughout the state of Florida including the cities of Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Carol City, Cooper City, Coral Gables, Coral Springs, Davie, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hialeah, Hollywood, Jupiter, Lake Worth, Miramar, Miami, Oakland Park, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Springs, Pompano Beach, and Rivera Beach

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