by Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
If a Florida doctor, hospital, or healthcare provider’s negligence caused your family member’s death, the Florida Wrongful Death Act governs who can recover and what damages are available. Medical malpractice wrongful death cases in Florida sit at the intersection of two statutory schemes, and the interaction between them includes a significant and Florida-specific restriction known as the “Free Kill” provision.
These cases are deeply factual and usually depend on reconstructing the final hospitalization or treatment timeline with precision. The preventable pathway to death may begin hours, days, or weeks before the patient died, in triage, in medication administration, in the operating room, or on a general floor where deterioration went unrecognized.
Why Choose Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
Founding partners Andrew Needle and Andrew Ellenberg bring more than 70 years of combined experience in Florida medical negligence and plaintiffs’ injury law. Both handle plaintiffs’ injury and death cases exclusively.
Practice Focus
Andrew Ellenberg focuses on plaintiffs’ injury and medical negligence cases, with practice concentrations that include wrongful death arising from medical negligence, catastrophic injury claims, and obstetrical malpractice. He earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law in 1988. Martindale-Hubbell rates him AV Preeminent. Florida Super Lawyers has listed him every year since 2005, and The Best Lawyers in America has listed him every year since 2009 for plaintiffs’ medical malpractice and personal injury work.
Andrew Needle is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar. His practice concentrations include wrongful death litigation, complex medical negligence, and cases involving systemic hospital failures. He holds a J.D. cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law (1977) and a B.S. from Cornell University (1974). He is a charter member of the Miami chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Best Lawyers in America named him “Lawyer of the Year” for Medical Malpractice Law, Plaintiffs, in Miami for 2020 and 2025.
Verdicts and Settlements
Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients across all practice areas, including multiple eight-figure results in medical malpractice matters. Many of the healthcare cases involved birth injuries, delayed diagnosis, surgical errors, anesthesia complications, and health system negligence. Our fees are contingent. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
What Our Clients Say
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“Andrew Ellenberg represented my family during one of the most painful and frightening chapters of our lives. He understood that behind the legal process was a family going through unimaginable fear and uncertainty. His kindness, integrity, and unwavering commitment to our family helped carry us through an incredibly difficult time.”
– Kerry Parker
Types of Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Cases We Handle
Fatal hospital cases often follow recognizable patterns. Identifying the pattern tells the reviewing lawyer what records to prioritize, which specialists will matter, and where in the chart the decisive moments are likely to be found.
- Delayed diagnosis deaths. Stroke, sepsis, cardiac events, aortic dissection, pulmonary embolism, and cancer can all turn fatal when recognition or treatment lags. These are timeline-driven cases in which the difference between salvageable and unsalvageable can be measured in minutes or hours.
- Medication and anesthesia-related deaths. Fatal medication errors, pharmacy-to-nurse communication failures, high-alert medication mistakes, and anesthesia events involving airway loss, overdose, or delayed rescue can all support wrongful death claims.
- Surgical and post-operative deaths. Retained surgical items that caused fatal infection, intraoperative emergencies that were not rescued in time, and post-operative deteriorations that went unrecognized until the patient was beyond help are recurring wrongful-death patterns.
- Hospital-acquired infections leading to sepsis and death. Sepsis is one of the most serious pathways in hospital negligence cases. When an infection was preventable or when sepsis was recognized too late, the resulting death may support a claim.
- Obstetric deaths of mother or infant. Maternal hemorrhage, hypertensive crisis, anesthesia events, and fetal distress that was not acted on can all produce fatal outcomes. A stillbirth caused by medical negligence, such as a physician’s discharge of a laboring patient without reviewing fetal monitoring tracings, is a wrongful death case, not a NICA claim, because NICA requires a live-born infant.
- Failure-to-rescue and code blue deaths. A patient whose deterioration was documented but not escalated, or who suffered delayed or inadequate resuscitation during a cardiac arrest, may have a wrongful death claim based on the hospital’s failure to recognize and respond to the emergency.
Florida Legal Framework for Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death
Who May Bring the Claim
Under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act, a Florida wrongful death action is brought by the decedent’s personal representative for the benefit of survivors and the estate. The personal representative must be appointed through a probate proceeding. The claim is not brought by individual family members directly; it is brought on their behalf by the personal representative.
Survivors and Their Claims
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act defines which survivors may recover and what categories of damages are available. Survivors typically include a surviving spouse, children under the age of 25, adult children in certain circumstances, and parents of a deceased minor child. Each category of survivor has defined damages categories, including lost support and services, lost companionship and protection, and mental pain and suffering.
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act contains a significant restriction that applies only to medical negligence cases. Under Florida’s wrongful death statute, children of the deceased who are not under 25, and parents of a child who is not under 25 and unmarried, cannot recover non-economic damages when the death was caused by medical malpractice. This law often referred to as Florida’s “Free Kill” law is a sad and unfortunate reality for people who have lost loved ones due to malpractice, but fall within a legal protection that exists only for healthcare providers.
The medical-negligence-only carve-out is widely referred to as Florida’s “Free Kill” provision and has been the subject of intense legislative debate for years. It means that when an adult patient with no spouse or children under the age of 25 dies from medical negligence, parents and adult children, even if they were the decedent’s closest family, cannot recover non-economic damages in the same way they could in a non-medical wrongful death case.
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act contains a significant restriction that applies only to medical negligence cases. Under Florida’s wrongful death statute, children of the deceased who are not under 25, and parents of a child who is not under 25 and unmarried, cannot recover non-economic damages when the death was caused by medical malpractice. This law often referred to as Florida’s “Free Kill” law is a sad and unfortunate reality for people who have lost loved ones due to malpractice, but fall within a legal protection that exists only for healthcare providers.
This provision is a critical early analysis question in every Florida medical malpractice wrongful death case. It may not eliminate the claim, but it affects which damages are recoverable and which family members can recover them.
Damages Caps Are No Longer Enforceable
Non-economic damages include pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring and disfigurement since the time of the alleged malpractice and into the future. While there was once a limit on the amount that could be recovered for this category of damages, those caps were overruled by Florida’s highest court. Some healthcare providers claim that the caps on non-economic damages still apply to a certain category of claimants who receive health insurance through Medicaid, but this is regularly disputed by lawyers for victims of malpractice. Florida’s high court has not yet ruled on this issue.
Statute of Limitations
A Florida medical malpractice wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death. The date of death is a separate trigger from the underlying malpractice incident. If the malpractice occurred months or years before the death, the wrongful death clock runs from the death, but the underlying medical malpractice limitations framework may also apply to any survival-type claims preserved for the decedent’s pain and suffering before death.
Florida law requires a formal Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation before any lawsuit is filed, triggering a 90-day presuit screening period during which the statute of limitations is tolled. The claimant’s attorney must also secure a corroborating written opinion from a qualified medical professional before the notice goes out.
How Wrongful Death Analysis Differs from Nonfatal Cases
A fatal case demands a broader record review because the death may have followed a chain of events extending beyond the final chart entry. The issue is not simply what happened in the last minutes of life. It is what preventable pathway led there. The case may begin in triage, in medication administration, in the operating room, in the postpartum period, or days earlier on a general floor.
What Damages Are Recoverable in Florida Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death?
Economic Damages
Economic damages can include the financial losses that were sustained and/or that reasonably will be suffered in the future, due to the malpractice. These can include lost wages, diminished earning capacity, past and future care, treatment, therapies and services.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages include the surviving spouse’s loss of companionship and protection, and mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. Minor children may recover for lost parental companionship, instruction, and guidance, and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. Parents of a deceased minor child may recover for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.
Under the Free Kill provision discussed above, adult children and parents of an adult child are barred from recovering mental pain and suffering damages when the death was caused by medical negligence. This remains a Florida-specific limitation that does not apply in non-medical wrongful death cases.
Survival Claims
Separately from the Wrongful Death Act, Florida recognizes survival claims for damages the decedent could have recovered if they had lived, to the extent preserved by the personal representative on behalf of the estate. These typically include the decedent’s pain and suffering between the time of injury and death, which can be substantial in cases involving prolonged deterioration.
Contact Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
If you believe a Florida healthcare provider caused serious harm to you or a family member through the death of a family member from medical negligence, the first step is a free case evaluation. Medical malpractice cases are fact-intensive and deadline-driven. Early review by experienced counsel makes a difference in what the records show and what the timeline preserves.
We offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. Our staff speaks Spanish, and we represent clients in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, and throughout Florida. Contact us to schedule your consultation. There is no fee unless we recover compensation for you.