By Monivette Cordeiro
Attorneys for two hospitals asked an Orange County judge Wednesday to dismiss for a second time a negligence lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died while under the care of former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle.
The hospitals, AdventHealth Orlando and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, say the allegations against them by the family of Steven Stryker are improper and fail to comply with Florida’s medical negligence claim requirements. A different judge dismissed AdventHealth from the initial complaint last September for similar reasons, though the family has since re-filed.
Attorneys for Stryker’s family argued that their claims don’t relate directly to medical care but to the negligent decisions each hospital made regarding Fierle, who signed a “do not resuscitate” order against Stryker’s wishes and the protests of his daughter, health-care surrogate and psychiatrist.
The 75-year-old Navy veteran died in May 2019 at St. Joseph’s Hospital after medical staff were unable to attempt to save his life because of the order. His death led to Fierle’s arrest and pushed lawmakers to reform Florida’s troubled guardianship system amid a statewide scandal.
Circuit Judge Denise Kim Beamer did not make a ruling during a Wednesday virtual hearing.
Stryker was a patient at AdventHealth in 2018 when the hospital asked a judge to declare him incapacitated and appoint Fierle to make all his decisions instead of Stryker’s 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 a judge’s approval, Fierle was improperly billing AdventHealth for providing services to Stryker — one of almost 700 vulnerable patients who received services from Fierle to the tune of nearly $4 million over a decade, according to an audit by the office of Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond.
“Our claims are based on AdventHealth’s decision to partner with an unfit profession guardian, Ms. Fierle, who had been paid millions of dollars by AdventHealth over the years,” said Lance Curry, an attorney for Stryker’s family. “AdventHealth picked ... that unfit guardian who’s purportedly supposed to serve [Mr. Stryker’s] best interests. But what did she do? Immediately after being picked by AdventHealth, she discharged him from the hospital, violated his rights, abused him and ultimately led to his death.”
But AdventHealth’s attorney J. Charles Ingram countered that the hospital only recommended Fierle. A judge ultimately appointed her as Stryker’s guardian.
“The need for a safe discharge was the only duty AdventHealth had to Mr. Stryker,” Ingram said.
Months after being discharged from AdventHealth, Stryker was a patient at St. Joseph’s when Fierle authorized a DNR order on his behalf despite him stating “several times” that he wanted to live, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She also insisted his feeding tube be capped even though medical staff warned her he could choke and die.
Stryker died May 13, 2019 after aspirating and going into cardiac arrest.
St. Joseph’s risk management director failed to seek court intervention or call the authorities despite having concerns about Fierle’s behavior after an ethics consultation, said Robin Treto, another attorney for Stryker’s family.
“We’re not critical of doctors carrying out of any of the decisions of Ms. Fierle,” Treto said. “We’re critical of an [attorney’s] decision to ultimately not intervene.”
Andy Bolin, an attorney for St. Joseph’s, argued the allegations brought by Stryker’s family fit the definition of a medical negligence claim, which has requirements that the plaintiffs have not complied with. Under Florida law, claimants have to conduct an investigation to find “reasonable grounds” for the complaint with a corroborating opinion by a medical expert before filing the lawsuit, as well as give 90 days’ notice to the defendants.
“There is no escaping the fact that at its very core, the plaintiff’s allegations sound like medical malpractice,” Bolin said.
Fierle, who is also named in the lawsuit, has pleaded not guilty to the charges she faces in her criminal prosecution.
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