The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this week its plans to decertify Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a major organ procurement organization (OPO) in Miami, following its federal investigation that allegedly uncovered years of “unsafe practices.”
The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is a division of the University of Miami Health System and is purported to service hospitals across South Florida and the Bahamas. Life Alliance is one of 55 nonprofits designated by the federal government that coordinates the transplantation of organs around the country. They are regulated by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, according to local media reporting.
In addition to unsafe practices, the investigation revealed “poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors.”
“In one 2024 case, a mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting transplant surgery,” officials said in the news release.
No further remarks were made in that case as to why the donated heart was declined or what the mistake involved in the situation was.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy told reporters at a news conference Thursday that the decertification of Life Alliance in Miami, which “has a long record of deficiencies,” was a “warning” to similar organizations, The Herald reported.
Life Alliance told reporters that does not plan to appeal the HHS decision.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a 49-year law firm with offices in Orlando, Miami, and Key West. Over nearly five decades, the firm has secured numerous record verdicts and settlements for injured clients and grieving families, some of which have affected statewide legislation. Our skilled trial attorneys work tirelessly to ensure the best possible outcome for every client. Over the years, Leesfield & partners has secured well over $120 million for injured clients and their grieving family members in such cases.
The firm has represented countless victims of medical negligence. When a medical professional deviates from the accepted standard of care to the detriment of their patient, it may give rise to a medical malpractice claim.
These cases must be handled promptly because Florida imposes a two-year statute of limitations, meaning that a lawsuit must be filed within two years of the date the patient (or their guardian) knew, or reasonably should have known, that the injury was caused by medical negligence.
In addition, Florida law has a statute of repose, which generally bars malpractice claims filed more than four years after the actual incident. The only exceptions to this four-year limit are cases involving fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentation by the healthcare provider.
Carlos A. Fabano, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Lawyer has invaluable experience litigating these types of cases. In addition to medical malpractice cases, Mr. Fabano also represents clients injured or killed in various practice areas of personal injury such as premises liability, construction site accidents and defective products.
Previous Cases
Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a young woman and her son in a medical malpractice case, obtaining a multi-million-dollar settlement for the family. In that case, the woman’s husband was ignored by ER doctors when he needed medical attention. The firm secured a settlement within 10 months while the claim was in a pre-suit period.
While on a cruise ship, a 16-year-old Leesfield 7 Partners client was suffering a stroke. Despite her clear signs and her family’s insistence, doctors disregarded them on the basis that teenagers “don’t have strokes.”
Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a multi-million-dollar settlement in that case.
In a case in which a doctor used controversial labor techniques on a mother giving birth, Leesfield & Partners secured a $24.1 million award for the family. The Central Florida woman was being treated by an obstetrician as she labored for days. After unsuccessful induction, the doctor used a vacuum extractor on the woman for over 45 minutes before ordering nurses to apply fundal pressure, a technique involving pressure to a mother’s abdomen to push a baby down the birthing canal.
The technique is dangerous as it can result in uterine rupture, a rare but life-threatening complication. As the pressure was applied to the laboring mother in this case, the uterus ruptured and cut off oxygen supply to the baby who was born with cerebral palsy.
The award, handed down by a jury following a three-week-long trial, is the largest of its kind in Seminole County, Florida history.
Another birth trauma case handled by Leesfield & Partners resulted in an over $10.2 million recovery for the family.
For the family of a 39-year-old mother, Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a $4.3 million settlement after doctors failed to treat a brain cyst that resulted in brain herniation. In addition to brain injuries, the cyst also caused cardiac arrest and the woman’s death.
The firm secured over $8.7 million for a client injured in a medical malpractice case.
In conjunction with another firm, alters, Boldt, Rash Brown & Culmo, Leesfield & Partners obtained a $3.2 million verdict for the care of a woman severely injured in a medical malpractice case.