Monthly Archives: October 2011

Florida Businessman Dies When Speedboat Flips

Posted on October 31, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

Robert Phillips, the owner of a car dealership in Homosassa, Florida, died on August 21 due to a boating accident in the Homosassa River. According to WTSP, his 39-foot speedboat flipped with nine other people aboard. Phillips’s wife, his son Wade and his daughter Aspen were aboard the ship at the time, along with other friends. Hospitals treated the nine passengers for injuries, but Phillips, a beloved member of the Citrus County community, died instantly. There was no information about whether or not the 10 boat passengers wore life jackets. Investigators of the boating accident state that the boat veered outside a channel near mile marker 19, which led Phillips to overcorrect the vessel and flip it. One woman from Riverhaven Marina, where bystanders pulled passengers out of the water, noted that the channel where the boat overturned has a sandbar. She stated that missing the marker could cause problems…
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Study Finds Children Falling from Windows is a Steady Problem

Posted on October 28, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

Though it may seem like an obviously preventable issue, a new study finds that more than 5,100 American children go to the hospital every year with injuries sustained from falling out of a window. According to Reuters, toddlers comprise two-thirds of all cases of window falling injuries, because they are curious and have a high center of gravity. Half of the children who go to the hospital had damage to their heads or faces, and two in 1,000 cases are fatal. Most of these falls happened from the second floor, so Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and author of the study, states that people living in houses, not high-rise apartments, need to be aware of this potential childhood injury. In order to prevent falls from windows, Dr. Smith recommends preventing children from having access to a window, including…
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Sarasota Woman Miscarries Twins, Leads to Hospital Investigation

Posted on October 27, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration released a report indicting Sarasota Memorial Hospital for neglecting a pregnant woman this past July, and the hospital must undergo a full federal investigation in order to keep Medicare payments. According to the Herald Tribune, a woman who was 13 weeks pregnant with twins arrived at the emergency room bleeding and in labor. Documents showed that she was diabetic, but nursing staff failed to follow procedure and did not order a glucose test. Nurses did not address her low blood sugar until six hours after admission. The emergency room doctor failed to act quickly enough to control the labor or bleeding, and she did not consent to a pelvic exam with suction that led to miscarrying one of the fetuses. Six hours later, she lost the other one. In addition to her physical health, hospital staff did not attempt to check on her emotional…
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Florida Road Rage Leads to Brutal Attack

Posted on October 26, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

Road rage quickly escalated in East Manatee in September when one angry driver brutally attacked a man taking his son to school. On his way to Braden Elementary with his 10-year-old son, Christopher, John Lee prevented a man tailgating him on a residential road from passing him. According to the Herald Tribune, the driver, John Sabin, followed Lee and his son to the school. Lee and his son remained in their car as Sabin got out of his car to spit on their car window and shout obscenities. When Sabin returned to his car, the father and son began walking to the school doors. However, Sabin got out of his car and brutally attacked Lee, only stopping when Christopher attempted to pull the man off his father. Lee sustained a broken rib, a dislocated shoulder, a partially collapsed lung and scrapes. Lee acknowledges that he could have prevented some of…
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