National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse: Judge dismisses AdventHealth from lawsuit by family of man at center of guardianship scandal

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Judge dismisses AdventHealth from lawsuit by family of man at center of guardianship scandal — for now

Steven Stryker, seen here during his time working for the Environmental Protection Agency, according to his daughter. Stryker died while under the care of Rebecca Fierle, who according to investigators filed a "do not resuscitate order against Stryker's wishes. (Courtesy of Kim Stryker)

By Monivette Cordeiro

A judge has dismissed AdventHealth Orlando from a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died under the care of a private guardian paid by the hospital company, finding that the plaintiffs failed to comply with Florida’s medical negligence claim requirements.

Robin Treto, one of the attorneys representing the family of 75-year-old Navy veteran Steven Stryker, called the dismissal filed Monday “temporary.”

“We’ll be able to resume claims against AdventHealth in a few months,” he said.

Stryker died May 2019 at St. Joseph’s Hospital after medical staff were unable to attempt to save his life because former guardian Rebecca Fierle signed a “do not resuscitate” order against his wishes and the protests of his daughter, health-care surrogate and psychiatrist.

His death sparked a statewide scandal that led to reforms of Florida’s troubled guardianship system and landed Fierle behind bars on charges of aggravated abuse and neglect of an elderly person.

Stryker was a patient at AdventHealth in 2018 when the hospital asked a judge to declare him incapacitated and appoint Fierle to make all medical, financial, housing, legal and personal decisions instead of his chosen health-care surrogate and friend, Linda Lanier.

Lanier has told the Orlando Sentinel that AdventHealth seemed determined to put Stryker into guardianship and get him discharged from the hospital, despite her efforts to find him a new place to live.

Without the required court approval, Fierle billed AdventHealth for providing services to Stryker and nearly 700 other vulnerable patients over a decade — to the tune of nearly $4 million, according to an audit by the office of Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond.

Months later at St. Joseph’s, Fierle authorized a DNR order on behalf of Stryker and insisted his feeding tube be capped, despite Stryker stating “several times” he wanted to live and medical staff warning her he could choke and die, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Stryker aspirated and went into cardiac arrest, according to the lawsuit. He died May 13.

The lawsuit filed against Fierle and AdventHealth by Kimberly Stryker, the man’s daughter who is in charge of his estate, alleged negligence in her father’s care.

“Rebecca Fierle’s negligence, neglect, abuse, and exploitation of Steven Stryker caused his death,” the lawsuit said. “AdventHealth created, facilitated, and funded the guardianship relationship between Rebecca Fierle and Steven Stryker and is therefore responsible for the actions that led to Mr. Stryker’s death.”

The hospital company argued the complaint is actually a medical negligence claim. Florida law requires that, before filing such a lawsuit, claimants have to conduct an investigation to find “reasonable grounds” for the suit with a corroborating opinion by a medical expert, as well as give 90 days notice to the defendants.

AdventHealth said there are “no allegations” that it played a role in Fierle’s decision to authorize a DNR order on Stryker or that it exercised control over his care after he was discharged from the hospital, court records show.

Treto had argued the claim was not a medical negligence claim because Fierle is not a health care provider like a doctor or surgeon.

“What Rebecca Fierle did and the relationship she had [with AdventHealth], none of that is diagnosed as care or treatment,” he said. “We’re saying they’re ordinary negligence claims.”

When reached for comment, AdventHealth spokesman Bryan Malenius said the hospital company would “continue to respond as appropriate in court.”