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Christopher O'Donnell - Health and Medicine Reporter

Health and Medicine Reporter

I’m a political junkie and I love literature so this job fits like a glove. But journalism wasn’t my first career. I was born and grew up in England and programmed computers for a living. I switched to reporting when I moved to Florida in 2001. I got my first break at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune after earning a journalism degree from the University of South Florida. I joined the Tampa Bay Times in 2016 after a three-year stint at the Tampa Tribune, where I covered city halls on both sides of Tampa Bay. When I’m not shouting at cable news, I love watching real football from England (alright, soccer) and riding my road bike on trails.

  1. An aerial drone view of the Florida State Fire College, at left, and the Lowell Correctional Institution, in background at right.
  2. Nurses from the National Nurses United union protest Monday outside HCA Florida Largo Hospital. The hospital is compromising safety by assigning nurses up to 14 patients, they said.
  3. The Lowell Correctional Institution, a women's prison in unincorporated Marion County, is shown in this drone photo. Inmates at the facility say they weren't told about potential chemicals in the groundwater, and grievances filed to get bottled water or filtration systems were denied.
  4. Bayfront Health St. Petersburg is to be rebranded in March to reflect the name of its owner, Orlando Health.
  5. In its Feb. 9 bankruptcy filing, the The Center for Special Needs Trust Administration states that the group’s founder, Leo Govoni, took money from more than 1,500 trust funds through an unsanctioned loan to the Boston Finance Group, a company he owned.
  6. The Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, a nonprofit that manages trust funds for individuals with complex medical needs, including victims of road accidents and medical malpractice, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing the loss of $100 million that it says was taken in an unsanctioned loan by the nonprofit's founder, Leo Govoni. It is located at the Roosevelt Lakes office building at 12425 28th St. in St. Petersburg.
  7. Hannah Waite, left, died Feb. 14, 2015, of septic shock from an ulcer that went untreated for two months. A Tampa jury on Wednesday found two doctors at Kindred Hospital liable for her death and awarded her parents $30 million in damages.
  8. David Pizzo at a Florida Blue event announcing a $1.7 million investment to fight poverty in North Tampa. The West Florida market president for Florida Blue, Pizzo volunteered with United Way for more than two decades and catapulted the company's donations to the nonprofit to more than $1 million annually.
  9. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, left, and Gov. Ron DeSantis discuss a statewide grand jury's report on COVID-19 during a roundtable in Tallahassee on Friday, Feb. 9.
  10. Florida is suing the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid over guidance that would prevent the state from terminating children from the federally subsidized KidCare health insurance program if their parents stop paying premiums.
  11. A Tampa Bay Times analysis of recently released U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that Publix overtook CVS to become the second-largest dispenser of opioids in Florida in 2019. The Lakeland firm ramped up sales of painkillers like oxycodone during a period when other pharmacy chains were restricting the flow of opioids in response to litigation filed as a result of the opioid crisis.
  12. Sarasota County Judge Hunter Carroll this week reduced the damages awarded against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in the case made famous by the "Take Care of Maya" Netflix documentary. The judge's order included sharp criticism of the hospital's defense of its care of Maya Kowalski.
  13. The Moffitt Cancer Center must pay $19.5 million back to the federal government after an Department of Justice investigation found that the nonprofit wrongly billed federal health programs to cover the cost medical treatment of patients taking part in clinical trials.
  14. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday issued new guidance urging Florida doctors to stop recommending mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, based on a claim described as "misleading" and "disinformation" by the FDA.
  15. Paul Lengyel was juror No. 1 and jury foreperson in the Kowalski family lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, which resulted in a $261 million damages award against the hospital. Lengyel was questioned in court Wednesday after hospital attorneys filed several motions alleging juror misconduct during the trial.
  16. Saurabh Sanon, a structural interventional cardiologist at HCA Florida Largo Hospital, recently removed a patient's heart tumor using a catheter. It's the first time the new procedure has been performed in Florida.
  17. Dunedin entrepreneur James Judge Sr., left, and his son, James Judge Jr. The elder Judge founded and ran Judge Construction, pumping concrete for many notable Florida projects including Epcot and Raymond James Stadium.
  18. Tampa motorcyclist charged with DUI manslaughter after he lost control of his motorbike and hit a guardrail on I-275 exit ramp. His passenger, a 29-year-old woman died from her injuries.
  19. Emma Coto, 11, plays the piano during a Christmas recital at The Music Gallery  in Clearwater. In 2020, she became Boston Children's Hospital's youngest patient to undergo responsive neurostimulation treatment, which involves the implantation of a device in her head to prevent seizures.
  20. Maya, Kyle and Jack Kowalski leave the South County Courthouse in Venice, during their eight-week civil jury trail against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. The judge in the case has ordered that a juror be interviewed following allegations by hospital attorneys of juror misconduct.
  21. From left to right Frann Leppla, Tampa General Hospital Foundation senior vice president and chief philanthropy officer, Gordon Gillette, foundation board chairperson, Pam Muma and Les Muma onstage at the Florida Aquarium on Friday. The hospital is naming its children's hospital after the  philanthropic couple who made a "transformational" donation to the facility.
  22. At HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital in Hudson, a patient whose monitoring equipment showed he had a potentially fatal heart rhythm died after hospital medical staffers could not find what room the patient was in, a state review found.
  23. An architect's rendering of the $510 million TGH Surgical, Neuroscience & Transplant Pavilion planned for Tampa General Hospital's main campus on Davis Islands.