However, as a toddler, he began growing rapidly and he never stopped.īy the age of five, he stood at a height of 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in), already wearing clothes intended for teenagers. Attorneys for Heekin and the Heekin Clinic did not respond to our request for comment by publication of this article.Ĭopyright 2022 by WJXT News4JAX - All rights reserved.When Robert Wadlow was born on 22 February 1918 to average-sized parents, weighing an unremarkable 3.85 kg (8.7 lb), there was no indication that he would go on to become the world’s tallest man ever. In the meantime, Roberta Musto is using a walker, going to rehab and waiting for her day in court.Īn attorney representing St. “The welfare of the people in that hospital should be paramount to anything else, including the bottom line. Vincent’s Medical Center billed millions for surgeries performed by Heekin over the years and that they didn’t protect patients from an unfit surgeon so they could continue to profit from it. Vincent’s Medical Center, but the health system never stopped him from operating. Attorneys allege Heekin had been diagnosed with a progressive neurological condition that can cause problems with balance, coordination, eye movement, and cognition that severely impacted his ability to practice medicine and perform surgery.Īttorneys also say numerous health care providers and patients brought their concerns about Heekin’s physical and mental state to St. Heekin has now been accused in lawsuits of causing hundreds of injuries in patients from 2016 to 2020, when he was an orthopedic surgeon for Ascension St. “He looked at that X-ray and the first thing out of his mouth was, he said, ‘This is as bad as it gets,’” Larry Musto said. They said they got a second opinion a few months later. “My knee had to stay straight, so I spent most of the time in the wheelchair with the leg extended.” Roberta Musto said she was discharged the next day, but soon afterward, Larry called 911 because she was bleeding so much, leading her to be re-admitted. He told me, and I had to ask him several times to repeat himself, that there was complications in the procedure, the patella tendon was ruptured sometime during the procedure.”Īccording to a report published in the orthopedic journal Reconstructive Review, a tear of the patella tendon after knee replacements happens in less than 1% of cases. “I originally thought maybe he had had a stroke or some issue. He just came out of the operating room to talk to us,” Larry Musto said. “I thought he was intoxicated, but, you know, we knew he wasn’t. “He did the most that we could see of joint replacements in Florida.”īut the couple said the surgery didn’t go as expected.Īfter the surgery, Larry Musto said Heekin approached him in the waiting room, slurring his words and grasping at the walls and furniture to steady himself. “We did our homework on him,” said her husband, Larry. “I was hoping it would make it like a new knee, that it wouldn’t hurt me anymore,” Musto said. Roberta Musto said that in 2019, she went to Heekin for a knee replacement. Vincent’s knew this doctor wasn’t fit to operate, but still allowed him to perform surgeries, putting patients at risk and making money doing it. In lawsuits, they and other plaintiffs allege leadership at Ascension St. They say a knee replacement left the patient using a wheelchair for months. The I-TEAM spoke with the plaintiffs in one of those lawsuits. Vincent’s Riverside Hospital and the Heekin Clinic before voluntarily relinquishing his medical license in 2021 at the conclusion of a state Board of Medicine investigation, records show. David Heekin formerly practiced at Ascension St. – Nearly 350 lawsuits have been filed against a former orthopedic surgeon in Jacksonville, alleging he caused hundreds of injuries while operating with a neurological condition that caused him to slur his speech and lose his balance.ĭr.
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