Boaters remain in hospital after weekend accident
Three men involved in a boating accident Saturday remain hospitalized.
Jason T. Baldner, 35, of 2110 Maplewood Drive, Onalaska, Wis., remained in critical condition Tuesday afternoon at Lee Memorial Hospital, according to officials.
Two Cape residents, Jason B. Williams, 36, of 2011 S.E. 13th St., was listed as fair, and Eric J. Terpsman, 31, of 1041 S.E. 20th Ave., was listed in good condition.
Williams was driving a boat at the end of Coral Point Drive when the vessel hit a seawall near Cantry Canal at a high rate of speed at about 7:23 p.m., according to officials. Baldner and Terpsma were passengers in the vessel, which topped the seawall and partially landed on land.
The three men were trauma-alerted to Lee Memorial Hospital.
“They hit a seawall and ended up in a vacant lot,” said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
He added that the “damages are extensive” to the boat.
Alcohol is suspected to have played a role in the accident, and officials are awaiting test results.
“It’s under investigation,” Morse said.
He would not speculate Tuesday as to what charges, if any, are pending. However, it appears that Williams failed to maintain a proper lookout while operating the vessel, which is a boating violation, Morse explained.
“This is a situation where some common sense for boating safety were violated,” he said. “There are a few things we tell people to do, and it seems to be consistent with every boating accident that one was not followed.”
According to Morse, boaters and their passengers should:
- Always wear a life vest.
- Keep a proper lookout and be aware of your surroundings.
- Operate a vessel at a safe speed.
- Never operate a vessel while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, even prescription drugs.
The investigation continues.
Man Plans to Sue City over S.I. Ferry Crash
The first, in what is expected to be many lawsuits stemming from the weekend’s Staten Island Ferry accident, is expected to be filed today.
labio Silva, of Queens, says he was a passenger on the Andrew J. Barberi when it crashed into the St. George Terminal on Saturday as it was docking. Nearly three dozen passengers were hurt in the accident. Most of the injuries in the crash were minor.
Silva, a 50-year-old construction worker, claims his lower back was hurt when the ferry slammed into the dock and is planning to sue the city for $5 million.
Investigators have determined that the accident was not a criminal act. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says most signs are pointing to mechanical failure.
“The City of New York is responsible for the actions of its employees, the crew and the operation and maintenance of the ferry boat, and is liable for damages to those who were injured,” Attorney Sanford Rubenstein said in a statement. ” It is incredible that the same ferry boat that took ll lives and injured over 100 is once again the ferry boat on which New Yorkers have been injured.”
The Barberi is the same boat that crashed into the same terminal in 2003, killing 11 people and injuring a dozen others. That accident occurred when the pilot, suffering from extreme fatigue and on painkillers, passed out at the wheel and the boat hit the St. George terminal at full speed. The ferry returned to service after a multimillion-dollar rehabilitation.
Tractor-Trailer Accident Closes Route 20
A tractor-trailer went over a guardrail on Route 20 south Thursday morning in Harrison County.
Just before 10:30 a.m., the truck’s passenger side wheels hit a soft shoulder and overturned south of Romines Mills, leaving part of the rig over an embankment, state police said.
The driver was able to get out of the truck, but his passenger, his son, had to be extricated by emergency workers.
That process took more than an hour.
The passenger was flown by Healthnet helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
There is no word on the extent of his injuries.
The accident pulled down telephone and cable lines in the area.
Route 20 will be closed well into Thursday afternoon while the accident scene is cleaned up.
Speed was not a factor in the accident and no citations are expected, according to state troopers.
The truck was owned by Harco Trucking. It was hauling paper goods and was headed for the Sago area of Upshur County, troopers said.
The Nutter Fort and Stonewood volunteer fire departments, along with the Anmoore EMS unit, the state police, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and the Division of Highways all responded to the scene, according to 911 officials.
Man struck by truck pronounced dead
The man hospitalized following Friday afternoon’s six vehicle accident on Interstate 30 has died, officials said.
John Lindsay, 70, was pronounced legally dead about 2:00 p.m. Sunday, said Billy McAnally, traffic investigator with the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department.
Lindsay was the driver of the first car struck by Celadon Trucking Services rig on the interstate near the Kings Highway exit at eastbound 218 mile marker. He and 65-year-old his wife, Wanda, were taken to CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System where he was placed in the intensive care unit on life support.
Study: Malpractice worries help drive health costs
A substantial number of heart doctors — about one in four — say they order medical tests that might not be needed out of fear of getting sued, according to a new study.
Nearly 600 doctors were surveyed for the study to determine how aggressively they treat their patients and whether non-medical issues have influenced their decisions to order invasive heart tests.
Most said they weren’t swayed by such things as financial gain or a patient’s expectations. But about 24 percent of the doctors said they had recommended the test in the previous year because they were worried about malpractice lawsuits. About 27 percent said they did it because they thought their colleagues would do the test.
Doctors who treated their patients aggressively were more likely to be influenced by malpractice worries or peer pressure than those who weren’t as aggressive, the study determined.
The research was done to see whether doctors’ attitudes and practices might be contributing to the wide differences in health care use and spending across the country.
“We have known for a long time that where you live has an influence on what kind of health care you get and how much health care you get,” said Lee Lucas, lead author of the study and associate director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Some of the reasons are known: differences in disease rates, patient preferences and the availability of medical services or hospital beds. And more care isn’t necessarily better care, Lucas noted.
For the study, the doctors were asked to recommend tests and treatment for three hypothetical heart patients. Their answers were used to score them on how aggressively they tend to treat patients.
Using Medicare records, the researchers found that doctors with higher scores were more likely to be in the areas with higher spending overall or higher rates for a heart test, although the differences were small.
The doctors were also asked whether other issues had led them to recommend the heart test — called a cardiac catheterization — during which a thin tube is threaded to the heart to check how well it is working and to look for disease.
The researchers suggest that targeting malpractice concerns could help reduce the regional differences.
“We need a way for docs to be less afraid of not ordering a test,” said Lucas.
Medical malpractice was part of the health care reform debate, but didn’t make it into the recently approved legislation. The new law does include pilot programs for states to explore alternatives to lawsuits.
The study was released Tuesday by the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
The results support moving toward more integrated health care, and away from fee-for-service payments, and working on malpractice reforms, said Kenneth Thorpe, a professor of health policy at Emory University in Atlanta.
Lucas said patients can help by not pressuring their doctors to do tests.
“If he says you don’t need it, let it go,” she said.
Ex- Miami Dolphins Receiver wins $11.5 Million in Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
McDuffie has been awarded $11.5 million in a lawsuit against his former doctor over his career-ending toe injury, according to the Associated Press. The doctor, John Uribe, used to work for the Dolphins as a team doctor. He called the damage award a travesty and will most likely appeal the decision.
The attorney for McDuffie told the news source that the award is fair compensation for his client’s lost earnings.
The lawsuit stems from the toe injury McDuffie originally suffered in 1999, which eventually forced him to retire after eight effective seasons in the NFL. Several other doctors have settled with the wideout rather than go to court.
McDuffie spent most of his playing career catching passes from Dan Marino. He was reasonably successful in this role, hauling in 29 touchdown passes in his career. His best year came in 1998 when he caught 90 passes for 1,050 yards and scored seven touchdowns. He also returned two punts for scores in his 1993 rookie campaign.
LCSO reveals name of Florida lake drowning victim
Mornining update
Leon County Sheriff spokesman Sgt. Tony Drzewiecki has revealed the name of the man who died after drowning Sunday afternoon in Dog Lake off of Springhill Road.
Marco Antonio Navarro Garcia, 41, was pronounced dead after being flown to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Drzewiecki said it was reported that Garcia was possibly swimming across the length of Dog Lake when he drowned.
An autopsy will be performed on Garcia today.
Evening update
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office is investigating what appears to be a drowning this afternoon in Dog Lake, off of Springhill Road, said spokesman Sgt. Tony Drzewiecki.
The man’s name is not being released at this time and an autopsy will be performed Monday morning.
The Sheriff’s Office was called around 4:50 p.m. to the lake off Dog Lake Tower Road in the Apalachicola National Forest.
The man was swimming when he started experiencing problems.
Spring Hill mom saves toddler from drowning
A Spring Hill woman rescued her infant son after he fell into a swimming pool on Mother’s Day, authorities say.
Angela Thompson, 19, told deputies she went outside to retrieve a cigarette lighter from her 1-year-old son’s father, who was working in the yard of the home at 4301 Hoffman Ave. on Sunday evening, according to a report from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
When she returned, she saw her child in the shallow end of the pool.
Thompson dived in, grabbed the boy and laid him down beside the pool, the report states. The boy was not breathing, and Thompson started to perform CPR. Water came out of the boy’s mouth and nose and he started to breathe again, Thompson later told deputies.
A neighbor heard Thompson screaming and came to help.
Thompson estimated the boy was in the pool for 15 to 30 seconds, according to the report.
The toddler was taken to Oak Hill Hospital, where he was treated for a bump on the head. A doctor told a deputy the boy was going to be fine, the report said.
Thompson told deputies she shut a door leading from the house to the pool area, but authorities believe that window blinds that hang on the door may have prevented it from closing completely, the report states. There was no safety fence around the pool.
Miami man drowned, body found in Fort Meyers
Nick Potts wouldn’t give up until the body of his older brother, Gary, who drowned Sunday in the Caloosahatchee River, was found.
On Wednesday morning, his determination was sadly rewarded. He and a cousin found Gary Potts’ body in mangroves on the north shore of the river about 2 miles from where he disappeared.
“It was a miracle that we found him. Now we have closure,” said Potts, 50, of North Fort Myers.
Although he’s satisfied his brother was found, he is still in shock over his death, Potts said. “I’m still numb. I’m going to miss him dearly,” he said.
Potts and his cousin, Keith Hartzell, 50, of Cape Coral, did what sheriff’s patrol boats, helicopters, and divers failed to do since Gary Potts, 54, of Punta Gorda, climbed down the ladder of their boat and into the river to cool off near Bay Pointe Yacht and Racquet Club in North Fort Myers on Sunday afternoon. Potts said he tried to save his brother but couldn’t.
Divers called off their efforts Monday afternoon after searching the river bottom in the area of the yacht club all day. Sheriff’s marine patrol boats found nothing Tuesday.
Potts said he then asked sheriff’s officials if the family could continue the search and was given the go-ahead by detectives.
Potts said he and Hartzell got on personal watercraft and began searching the river banks.
Around 10:45 a.m., Hartzell said he saw something in the mangroves on the north shore of the river just west of Interstate 75. He said he moved closer with the personal watercraft.
“It was Gary,” he said.
Hartzell called 911 and family and friends, who called Potts, who was at another point on the river.
A sheriff’s patrol boat took the body to shore. The medical examiner’s office has not made an identification or determined the cause of death, said Sgt. Stephanie Eller, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Potts said Gary died doing what he loved to do: boating and swimming.
“We had so much fun boating. We swam in the river, in canals, in my pool. We’ve been playing on the water for more than 30 years,” Potts said.
He believes Gary’s injuries from a car accident a year ago contributed to the drowning.
“He never fully recovered. His body wasn’t strong enough to do what he thought it could,” Potts said.
Pickup truck crashes & catches fire, killing passenger
An early-morning crash in the University Park area claimed the life of a Georgia resident.
Florida Highway Patrol officials said it happened shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday.
A 39-year-old man driving a Toyota pickup truck north on Cooper Creek Boulevard east of Charleston Street reportedly failed to turn at a curve, continuing to travel straight ahead and struck a curb.
The truck’s right front hit some shrubbery, then a tree.
According to reports, the vehicle spun around the tree, coming to rest on the east shoulder of Copper Creek Boulevard.
The truck then caught fire after the crash.
When troopers arrived at the scene, the driver had escaped from the vehicle, but suffered serious injuries.
He was transported to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center for treatment.
The passenger, 28-year-old Haudrey F. Figueurdo, was trapped inside the truck and died from injuries suffered in the accident.
FHP investigators are trying to determine exactly what happened, but no charges have been filed at this time.
