A hospitalized patient died after being taken off life support because staff mistakenly asked the wrong family if they wanted to be taken off life support, according to the lawsuit.
David Wells was unconscious and not breathing when he was taken by ambulance to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington, after choking on a steak in August 2021.
However, the lawsuit says he was incorrectly identified as his hospital roommate, Mike Beeler. Retrieved by McClatchy News.
Hospital staff tried to contact Wells' family to make the difficult decision to remove Wells from life support, but instead called Beeler's sister, Debbie Danielson, who said he was in critical condition. I mistakenly reported that I was in a bad condition.
“They said, 'He's basically brain dead,'” Danielson said. K.G.W.. “'Do you want to keep him on life support or stop treatment?'”
Danielson said she was forced to make the “difficult choice” to end her brother's life. It wasn't until a week later, when he received a phone call from his brother, who was thought to be dead, that he realized he had the wrong patient.
“I said, 'You shouldn't be alive. You're dead!'” Danielson recalled telling his brother.
But with the good news came a harsh reality.
“We made the decision to end our lives for someone we didn't know,” Danielson's husband, Gary, told KGW.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center reported the death to the county coroner's office, and a death notice was published in a local newspaper stating that Boehler died on Aug. 9, according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Wells' body was sent to a funeral home, which contacted Beeler's relatives to make final arrangements.
Beeler and Danielson both called police to report the fatal crash, according to the complaint. The Clark County Coroner's Office later confirmed that it was Wells, not Beeler, who had died, and called her son to break the news.
“They basically said there was a medical emergency regarding my father. He was pronounced dead,” Sean Wells told KGW.
A new death notice was published in the newspaper in memory of the roommate. “David C. Wells, 69, Vancouver, passed away on August 9, 2021.”
He did not know for another two years that strangers had decided his father's fate when he was contacted by a local news reporter.
“I'm speechless at how terrible their response has been,” he told the outlet. “You'll never be able to take back that decision.”
“It's unsettling. I don't know if we'll get over it. They dropped the ball too bad,” he added.
Sean Wells, Beeler and Danielson are suing the hospital for negligence and causing severe emotional distress “as a direct result of[PeaceHealth's]extreme and outrageous conduct,” the suit says. There is.
The three also filed separate lawsuits against the American Medical Response ambulance service for misidentifying patients, the All-County Cremation and Burial Funeral Home, and the Clark County Coroner's Office for failing to disclose mistakes. It's happening.
Both lawsuits seek unspecified amounts of damages.
