St. Vincent's hospital, surgeon facing hundreds of lawsuits, allegations of ignoring complaints

A Jacksonville native and prominent orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Richard David Heekin, is at the center of 365 lawsuits alleging "devastating injuries" to his patients at St. Vincent's Riverside hospital from 2016 until his voluntary retirement in 2020, according to court documents.

The lawsuits, also filed against Heekin's clinic and Ascension St. Vincent's Riverside Hospital, claim that the hospital ignored complaints from staff members and patients that Heekin was experiencing symptoms from a progressive neurological disorder and harming his patients during surgery.

In addition, patients who filed 10 complaints have already been awarded over $6 million total in the Florida Division of Administrative Courts.

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Beginning as early as 2016, patients said they noticed Heekin’s hands shaking, slurred speech, unsteady walking, involuntary body movements, mood swings, and impaired judgment, according to the lawsuits.

Ruptured tendons, broken femurs, dislocated bones, misplaced prosthetic knees and even a death during a routine hip surgery are a few of the allegations described in the lawsuits filed in a Jacksonville district courtroom against the orthopedic surgeon.

"SVMC (St. Vincent's Medical Center) not only should have known, but in fact had actual knowledge of HEEKIN'S condition and his impairment, as several physicians, nurses and patients voiced their concerns to SVMC on numerous occasions," the lawsuit reads. "Despite the overwhelming evidence and knowledge of HEEKIN'S condition, the danger he posed to his patients, and the harm being caused to his patients, SVMC continued to allow Heekin to perform surgery, re-credentialed and retained Heekin to schedule, coordinate and perform a high volume of surgeries and revision surgeries at SVMC."

Lawyers for Heekin and his clinic did not immediately return a request for comment. Brent Allen, one of the lawyers representing St. Vincent's, declined to comment.

Heekin surrendered his license amid state investigation

In 2021, Heekin gave up his license to end a Florida Department of Health Investigation into a complaint alleging injuries during a surgery, according to state documents.

It's not clear which lawsuit complaint led to the state investigation.

But Sandra Coburn, one of Heekin's patients who's filed a lawsuit, said she went to Heekin when she was 64 years old for a total left knee replacement on March 11, 2019, according to her lawsuit.

Heekin “caused multiple significant and unexpected permanent injuries” that can only be explained by “his impairment,” according to the lawsuit.

“After that surgery, I continued to fall, which was the reason I had gone to see Dr. Heekin in the first place,” Coburn told the Times-Union. She said she had to go back to Heekin for a second surgery in April 2019.

According to Coburn's lawsuit, the revision surgery "caused an unacceptably lengthened left lower extremity."

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Although she continued to see Heekin through the summer of 2019, she said she never got better and was in constant pain, she says. The last time she saw Heekin was in August of 2019, she told the Times-Union.

“He was slurring his words so badly that neither my daughter nor I could understand what he was saying. We kept asking him to repeat himself and we couldn't make sense of anything he was saying,” Coburn said.

She eventually turned to a different doctor, and recently completed her fifth surgery on her left leg, she says.

“Hoping and praying that that was my last surgery,” Coburn said.

Katherine Lewin is the enterprise reporter at the Times-Union covering criminal and social justice issues in Northeast Florida. Email her at klewin@jacksonville.com or follow on Twitter @KatherineMLewin. Contact her for her Signal number to share anonymous tips and documents. Support local journalism!

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Surgeon Richard David Heekin facing 365 lawsuits alleging injuries