Renzo Downey
Rep. Cary Pigman is at home recovering after suffering serious injuries in a bike accident last week that sent him to the hospital for a lengthy stay, according to House Speaker José Oliva.
Pigman, an Avon Park Republican, is an emergency medicine physician and an army combat emergency physician.
“I am certain I speak for the entire House of Representatives when I wish the very best for Dr. Pigman in his recovery and, once again, thank him for his care and concern for all of us during this coronavirus pandemic.”
During a coronavirus scare in the House, Pigman personally took to the House floor to clean the chamber before business resumed. And as lawmakers met last month to pass this year’s state budget amid growing coronavirus concerns, he led the screening of House members and staff and helped write the health safety policies that governed the day.
“Knowing him, I have no doubt he instructed his attending physicians what to do for him,” Oliva wrote in a statement Thursday night.
The Representative lists bicycling, as well as auto and motorcycle racing, as some of his interests on his House website profile. With the Session wrapped up and the coronavirus pandemic hitting Florida with more than 1,000 new cases per day, he had shifted his focus to keeping his community healthy in the face of COVID-19.
Pigman, who terms out in November, served eight sessions representing Glades, Highlands, Okeechobee and part of St. Lucie counties in District 55. This Session, he chaired the House Health Market Reform Subcommittee and was a vice chair on two other health panels.
Since he was first elected to the House in 2012, Pigman has advocated for broader advanced practice registered nurse independence, finally securing that legislation’s (HB 607) passage in March with Oliva’s backing. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill a mere six hours after the Legislature passed it.
Advanced nurse practitioners with at least 3,000 hours of experience under the supervision of a physician could qualify to provide services including family medicine, general pediatrics and general internal medicine under the new law, which takes effect July 1. Nurse practitioners would have to complete minimum graduate level course work in differential diagnosis and pharmacology.
