By Kim Smith, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Nov. 27–Three Tucson hospitals are being sued in Pima County Superior Court by the families of three patients who died while in their care.
In each case, the plaintiffs claim the hospitals’ staffs were negligent and that their loved ones received substandard care.
According to the lawsuit filed against Northwest Medical Center, Martha Oakley, 90, was admitted to the hospital on May 23 because of heart-related problems. She was prescribed a drug known to cause dizziness, and the next night she fell getting out of bed, breaking her pelvis and suffering a head injury.
The lawsuit alleges hospital personnel “failed to take reasonable steps to insure that Martha would not leave her bed unassisted and risk falling.”
More importantly, attorney Herbert Beigel said, the hospital didn’t treat Oakley’s head injury and a subsequent brain hematoma. She died two months later.
Oakley’s daughter, Susan Newman, is seeking unspecified damages and also on behalf of Oakley’s other surviving children.
Kim Chimene, director of marketing for Northwest, said the hospital can’t comment on pending litigation.
According to a lawsuit filed against St. Joseph’s Hospital and Carondelet Health Network, Imelda Gallegos, 62, was rushed to St. Joseph’s emergency room on Nov. 7, 2004, because she had chest and abdominal pain, nausea and was coughing up blood.
Gallegos was sent home on Nov. 12, but was rushed back to the hospital on Nov. 16, again suffering from chest and abdominal pain. She died later that day.
The lawsuit claims Gallegos should never have been released from the hospital and that she didn’t receive the urgent attention she needed when she went back to the hospital on Nov. 16.
“These medical errors caused her premature death,” the lawsuit states.
Jose Gallegos, Gallegos’ husband, is seeking unspecified damages.
The third lawsuit was filed against Carondelet Health Network and St. Mary’s Hospital.
According to that lawsuit, Moises C. Dabdoub underwent gallbladder surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital on Nov. 4, 2004, and died of heart failure caused by multiple blood clots in his lungs 20 days later.
The lawsuit claims that hospital staff should have known Dabdoub was susceptible to blood clots because of the surgery itself and the fact he was largely immobile due to being catheterized.
The defendants, “fell below the applicable standard of care and were negligent in their care … by failing to provide compression stockings and/or appropriate anticoagulant therapy to prevent deep vein thrombosis and resultant pulmonary emboli,” the lawsuit states.
Laura Canez Dabdoub, Dabdoub’s wife, is suing for unspecified damages and also on behalf of his six children.
Letty Ramirez, the chief marketing and planning officer for Carondelet Health Network, said the network has not yet received the lawsuits and therefore can’t comment on them.
–Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or [email protected].
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
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