A hospital is facing a lawsuit after allegations surfaced that their staff posted pictures of a dying teenager on Instagram, treating him like a spectacle. The incident occurred on May 28, 2022, when 18-year-old Jose Lopez Canizares was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident in Kendall Lakes, Florida.
He was rushed to HCA Kendall Hospital in Miami, where he remained unconscious for weeks before his unfortunate passing. According to his father, Jose Fabian Canizares, hospital employees took pictures of his son while he was on the verge of death and proceeded to share these distressing images on Instagram.
In the lawsuit filed, it is claimed that a member of the hospital staff captured at least three photographs of the unconscious teenager in the trauma bay. These pictures were then shared via text message to other coworkers and one of them even posted an image of the patient’s injuries on Instagram, with the geo-tag of the hospital.
This post allegedly tagged another hospital employee, who in turn shared the picture on his own Instagram account, which had a substantial following of over 3,000 users. To add insult to injury, the person who shared the image also included emoji symbols.
According to Jose Fabian’s lawyer, Robert Solomon, there were about 20 employees present in the emergency room, including nurses, technicians, and doctors, when the photograph was taken.
Shockingly, not a single person intervened or prevented this invasion of the teenager’s privacy. Solomon aptly describes the callous behavior as treating the son like an object in an art exhibition, rather than a dying patient in need of compassion and privacy.
In October, Jose Fabian filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade court against HCA Kendall Hospital, seeking compensation for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and other charges.
He is vying for damages exceeding $30,000. Despite his son’s tragic passing on June 23, 2022, the grieving father asserts that the hospital was aware of the Instagram posts created by one of their officials as early as June 1. The complaint contains a letter from the hospital acknowledging the existence of the photograph and stating that appropriate actions had been taken against the employee responsible.
The hospital, however, attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed by arguing that the breach of privacy had affected the son, not the father.
Nevertheless, the presiding judge only dismissed the negligence charge, maintaining that the other counts in the lawsuit possessed merit and should be pursued. Overall, this disturbing incident highlights the need for stricter privacy protocols and respectful treatment of patients during their most vulnerable moments.