DR. HEEKIN

A top executive for Ascension St. Vincent’s must testify at a deposition as the health system defends hundreds of medical malpractice lawsuits focused on a former orthopedic surgeon at their Riverside hospital.

A judge has found that plaintiffs submitted enough evidence to permit a jury to conclude that top executives at St. Vincent’s Hospital were grossly negligent when they didn’t stop an orthopedic surgeon from operating despite a pattern of serious complications and reports of the doctor slurring his speech and behaving erratically.

One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys told News4JAX they have filed 377 lawsuits so far, and they expect there to be about 100 more.

A judge has found a top executive at Ascension St. Vincent’s was personally involved in issues at the center of hundreds of lawsuits accusing a surgeon of malpractice— even though the executive claimed under oath that he wasn’t.