A 76-year-old mother of two and grandmother of three was brought to the hospital on November 4, 2023 after she fell at home and shattered her ankle. She underwent emergency surgery after which she was placed on a ventilator for three days. After she was removed from the ventilator, she complained that she could not breathe and she had difficulty swallowing. In the weeks that followed, she had a cough that generated a sound like a seal barking. She repeatedly failed swallowing tests in the hospital. She was ultimately transferred to a skilled nursing facility.
On December 5, 2023, she suffered a severe drop in blood pressure and was rushed back to the hospital. She was admitted to the ICU where a physician attempted to place a tube with a camera down her throat. During the procedure, she coded. Resuscitation efforts were successful, after which a physician allegedly showed the family the small cap from a medication vial that had been lodged in the woman’s throat that was compromising her airway.
The dime-size cap allegedly caused the woman’s lungs to become infected that led to sepsis, kidney failure, and other life-threatening conditions. Her condition continued to deteriorate until she died one week later, on December 13, 2023. The autopsy report reportedly stated that the death was “accidental” and was caused by “complications of a foreign body aspiration, including pneumonia with sepsis.”
On October 30, 2024, the woman’s two adult children filed their California medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital: “I just don’t want anyone else to go through this. So I’m hoping that, if nothing else, policy changes. Something has to change because this happened, and a very important person is no longer here … It robbed us of our matriarch, like now I’m the matriarch, and they’re hard shoes to fill.”
The family’s California medical malpractice lawyer stated with regard to the lawsuit: “When surgery finishes, a needle count, or a sponge count, just be conducted to ensure that everything used in that room is accounted for. Nothing like that was done here. Had something like that been done, people would have known that they were missing a cap from one of the medication vials. Nothing we do could bring Pamela back. I wish we could, but in our system, the best we can do is seek financial compensation, accountability, and answers. Unfortunately, in this case, Scripps never gave this family an answer, and that’s why we’re here. We want to know what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen to another family ever again.”
If you or a family member were injured as a result of medical malpractice in California or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a California medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medical medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your family member in a medical medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Visit our website or call us toll free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical malpractice attorneys in California or in your state who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
