Medicine is an art not a science. Although there are very well-established and long-standing medical guidelines for most health problems, there are very few absolute certainties in the practice of medicine. We all hope that if in need our physicians are capable enough to use their medical education to perform the miracle that we may desperately need. Although we often expect our doctors to be superhuman and always cure our ailments, we cannot always expect that we will be cured.

However, as patients, we have not simply a moral but also a legal right to expect that our doctors are treating us with that level of care that a reasonably prudent physician practicing the same medical specialty in the same community would provide to his or her patients. To legally comply with this medical standard of care, our physicians are often required to conduct extensive medical research, perform in-depth analysis of radiological studies, and have multiple consultations with their medical colleagues. At the very least, even if our doctor cannot fix us, he or she must still follow the original rule of medicine: FIRST, DO NO HARM.

In following this rule, medical professionals must eliminate the most serious and life-threatening possibilities when attempting to diagnose a patient with a complex and multi-factorial medical presentation. This is the process of performing a differential diagnosis. A differential diagnosis is one in which multiple probabilities are seriously considered in light of the patient's reported signs and physical symptoms, and after review of the various diagnostic tests performed on the patient. Each and every likely diagnosis must be thoroughly assessed and ruled out, until the physician or medical team agrees on the diagnosis that fits the best. Unless absolutely obvious from the outset, a complex medical problem is generally arrived at by this process of diagnosis of exclusion.

Although many folks are satisfied with the medical and nursing care they receive, a recent study showed that roughly 98,000 deaths across the United States were solely and exclusively caused as a direct result of negligence by doctors, nurses, and hospital staff. Many errors are caused simply because nurses and pharmacists cannot read a physician's orders or prescriptions. Other times there are pervasive failures within a hospital's quality control system. When such systemic failures occur, high numbers of patients become infected with deadly diseases like Methicillin-Resistant Staphlyococcus Aureus (MRSA) infections.

Recently, Ellsley Sobol has been asked to represent numerous victims of Broward General Medical Center (BGMC). These folks were given deadly diseases like Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, as a result of a hospital employee reusing dirty needles during invasive cardiovascular procedures that these folks were required to undergo by their doctors. Even worse, BGMC has admitted that this employee was so poorly supervised that she was allowed to commit this act multiple times against multiple patients for almost 5 full years before she was stopped. It is despicable that BGMC permitted such a lack of supervision and oversight to exist such as it did. That lack of supervision and oversight fostered the atmosphere within which this hospital employee could do such a thing as many times as she did.

Unfortunately, when medical professionals and hospitals do cause serious or catastrophic injury to their patients, Florida law offers very limited recourse. As a result of the tort reform movement that began in the 1980s by the insurance industry, unfounded assertions that medical malpractice lawsuits increase health care costs have caused the Florida Legislature to construct very high hurdles to meritorious claims. Florida law actually places a limitation on the amount of monetary compensation a victim is legally permitted to receive for pain and suffering caused by a negligent doctor, nurse, or hospital.

Even worse, if the victim dies as a result of the bad acts by a doctor, nurse, or hospital, the only legal manner for the family of that victim to obtain compensation for their pain and suffering for their tragic loss is if the victim leaves a spouse or if no spouse exists, leave children under the age of 25. This is clearly a violation of equal protection for those victims who happen to fit into this category-mainly the elderly.

If a case of medical malpractice, nursing negligence, or hospital liability is suspected, the victim and his or her family should gather all medical information as soon as possible so that medical records are not later altered or lost. Florida Statute Section 395.3025 requires a medical care provider to provide records to a victim or legal representative of the victim's family upon request.