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Christopher O'Donnell - Health and Medicine Reporter
Christopher O'Donnell

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. Florida Medicaid program for kids had 1,000 unqualified therapists
    • Health
    Violet Park, 3, plays along on a small pink guitar while her sister, Madison throws colorful scarfs and therapist Brooklyn Webb plays and sings a song at Music Therapy St. Pete. Payments to hundreds of therapy providers in Florida stopped for several weeks after a review found many were not qualified to be paid through Medicaid.
  2. Big Storm Brewing to be sold at auction as former owner remains in jail
    • Business
    Taps are seen at Big Storm Brewing in Clearwater. The company, which was owned by indicted Clearwater entrepreneur Leo Govoni, is scheduled to be auctioned on Dec. 3 to raise funds for victims whose medical trust funds prosecutors say he raided.
  3. Is your hospital safe? New safety ratings for Tampa Bay hospitals
    • Health
    Tampa General Hospital
  5. Sticker shock looms for Florida residents relying on Affordable Care Act
    • Health
    Debbie Collins, of Zephyrhills, left, weighs insurance options for herself and her husband, Joe Collins, with Katie Roders Turner, executive director of the Family Healthcare Foundation at the Children’s Board Family Resource Center in Temple Terrace. Enrollment for Marketplace insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act began Nov. 1, with many participating families learning that their premiums are rising sharply.
  6. Therapy halted for kids across Florida after audit reveals bogus therapists
    • Health
    Therapist Brooklyn Webb plays The Wheels on the Bus on a guitar while Violet Park, 3, and her sister, Madison Park, 6, play and sing along, at Music Therapy St. Pete. Thousands of Florida children are going without medically prescribed therapy after a state contractor fired a company that ran its network of providers.
  7. Appeals court reverses $208M judgment against All Children’s in ‘Maya’ case
    • Health
    Maya Kowalski hugs her attorney Nick Whitney after a jury awarded her family more than $200 million Nov. 9, 2023. The Kowalski family sued Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for false imprisonment, negligent infliction of emotional distress, medical negligence, battery and other claims more than a year after the family matriarch, Beata Kowalski, took her life following allegations she was abusing her daughter, Maya Kowalski.
  8. Florida moms of disabled children denied medical care pin hope on old lawsuit
    • Health
    Alyssa Hagan holds her daughter, Caroline, 5, as they embrace after Caroline had her lunch at their home in Valrico. Hagan is among moms who have completed sworn statements about how the denial of at-home nursing is putting her child's health at risk. Eight of those declarations have been filed in a 2012 lawsuit that ordered Florida to provide in-home medical services to medically fragile children.
  9. Tampa General seeks to reduce $70.8 million negligence award
    • Health
    Tampa General Hospital and a medical staffing agency are asking a judge to reduce a medical negligence payout by roughly $51 million citing a state law that caps "pain and suffering" damages for Medicaid patients to $300,000.
  10. Bank at center of Leo Govoni’s $100 million trust fund scheme sued for damages
    • Health
    The bankruptcy trustee seeking to recover missing trust fund money for victims of Leo Govoni is suing American Momentum Bank for facilitating Govoni's scheme. The Clearwater entrepreneur was indicted in June for taking $100 million from the trusts.
  11. Florida Blue, BayCare to give seniors more time to find a new doctor
    • Health
    About 4,100 seniors enrolled in the Florida Blue Medicare Advantage PPO have been given a 3-month grace period to find a new doctor after the plan was omitted from a new reimbursement contract with BayCare.
  12. 5,500 Florida Blue customers lose out in new deal with BayCare
    • Health
    Florida Blue's new reimbursement contract with BayCare Health System doesn't include around 5,500 seniors on the Florida Blue Medicare Advantage. Those impacted have three choices: find a new primary care doctor, pay extra to continue using their current physician as an out-of-network provider or switch to a different health care plan that includes their current doctor.
  13. Florida Blue and BayCare strike last minute deal to end contract dispute
    • Health
    Reimbursement rates for a planned 154-bed $548 million hospital on Mocassin Wallow Road in Manatee County were among the sticking points in talks over a new contract between BayCare Health System and Florida Blue. The two sides reached a deal late Tuesday.
  14. Tampa General nurse negligent in stroke case, jury finds, awards patient $70.8M
    • Health
    Chiaka Stewart may receive only a fraction of the $70.8 million awarded to her by a jury following a stroke that caused permanent brain damage two days after the single mother went to the TGH Brandon Healthplex's emergency department with a severe headache and was sent home without staff performing a CT scan. Stewart is on Medicaid, and a Florida law limits non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases when the injured party is a Medicaid recipient to $200,000.
  15. An uninsured Florida mom fell from the 4th floor. Will she ever walk again?
    • Health
    Brittany Dedaj, doctor of physical therapy at NeuLife Rehabilitation, works with Riverview resident Kristina Andrews, who damaged her spinal cord after a fall from a fourth-story balcony. Her best hope was intensive rehabilitation therapy, which encourages the brain to reorganize itself and make new neural pathways. But its combination of physical and electrotherapy is expensive, and Andrews, a contract sales worker, had no health insurance.
  16. Moffitt plans $84 million hotel on Tampa campus
    • Health
    Moffitt Cancer Center has partnered with hotel development firm Mainsail Lodging and Development to add a 200-room hotel to its McKinley campus.
  17. Florida’s KidCare expansion in limbo as number of uninsured children jumps 20%
    • Health
    Florida's child uninsurance rate rose to 8.5% in 2024 increasing calls for the state to resolve its dispute with the federal government that has delayed expansion of the KidCare health insurance program.
  18. Publix and autism therapy firm at war over $15 million in medical bills
    • Health
    Publix has stopped paying health care firms who provide therapy for its workers' children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in Broward County.
  19. With no more vaccine mandates, who are the most at risk in Florida?
    • Health
    Unidentified twins with polio in Tallahassee photographed in 1960. Health experts fear infections of eradicated diseases like polio, measles and diphtheria will return if Florida scraps vaccine mandates for students to attend schools.
  20. Skittles, slushies and gummies: The delta-8 products on sale in Tampa Bay
    • Health
    A display produced by the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance shows products sold in branding that resembles candy that include delta-8, a hemp-based product that can produce a high.
  21. Around 200K Tampa Bay patients could lose their doctor in contract dispute
    • Health
    BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospital and its other 15 Tampa Bay region hospitals will be out-of-network for Florida Blue customers if the two companies cannot agree a new reimbursement contract by Sept. 30.
  22. Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, is unregulated. Its illicit use is on the rise
    • Health
    The Food and Drug Administration has issued repeated warnings on the health risks of inhaling nitrous oxide gas. Its advisory lists products that include flavored nitrous oxide canisters, some of which are sold in smoke and vape stores.
  23. Tampa Bay hospitals report rise in COVID-19 infections
    • Health
    Local hospitals are reporting a sharp uptick of cases of COVID-19 infections in Tampa Bay. State data shows the number of infections is rising across Florida and may be linked to schools reopening. Veklury is the brand name for remdesivir, an antiviral medication used to treat COVID-19.
  24. Can Social Security be fixed? Four takeaways from Spotlight Tampa Bay event
    • News
    Former U.S Congress member Tony Coehlo speaks at the Spotlight Tampa Bay event on the future of Social Security held in Tampa on Thursday.