Posted on 02/14/2026 5:03:40 AM PST by DFG
An Arizona family is calling for change and demanding answers after a 27-year-old man died hours after he was wrongfully discharged from a hospital and dumped on a sidewalk during a hot summer day, according to a wrongful death lawsuit.
Seth and Gayle Lachica, the parents of Kaelen Lachica, allege staffers at Abrazo Health Arrowhead put their son in an Uber and had him dropped off outside a local homeless shelter in Phoenix despite his deteriorating condition.
“What they did is abandonment. I mean, they absolutely killed my son,” Seth Lachica told Fox News Digital.
Kaelan Lachica suffered from anorexia for nearly a decade but his condition had improved in the year preceding his hospitalization in August 2025, his father said.
Lachica was hospitalized at one center before being transferred to Abrazo Health Arrowhead after having a possible stroke and losing weight.
Days prior to his discharge, his health declined to the point he was “delusional” and “immobile,” the lawsuit states. On Aug. 13, 2025, Kaelan lashed out and struck a nurse and asked to leave the hospital “against medical advice,” the family’s attorney, Richard Lyons, told Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit alleges that Kaelan was put in a wheelchair and into an Uber, which the hospital paid for, and was taken to a homeless shelter in downtown Phoenix. He couldn’t remember his address, Lyons said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The hospital killed my husband. And yelled at my mom for not getting well.
He went AMA.
His own choice.
Did he sign any paperwork that released him against medical advice?
My husband signed such paperwork after failed cancer surgery - he figured he’d rather die at home, signed the paperwork and we left. (he lived another three years).
We saw another patient, in a wheelchair also leave “against medical advice” - the staff were arguing with him, he called an Uber got in, and left.
“The family’s attorney, Richard Lyons, said on August 13, 2025, Kaelen lashed out, struck a nurse, and asked to leave the hospital”.
Sounds like he was on his last legs no matter what. Did the hospital notify the homeless center that he was on his way? Not that he would have lived, anyway.
Who checked him IN to the hospital? Parents?
Did he have medical insurance? I note he was 27, too old to be on his parent's insurance.
So I'm forming a picture in my head, that of a troubled man with no insurance. Parents can't (or won't) help so the hospital is stuck with the bill if he stays. And he's belligerent...
So staff is to just let Kaelan beat the crap out of every one?
Yep. Where were they?
Yes you weren’t admitted yet. That doesn’t count as leaving AMA
100%!
hospital staff should not have to put up with idiots hitting them.
Our local hospital has signs up everywhere that they will not tolerate it. Fair warning.
” and asked to leave the hospital “against medical advice,”
Hospitals are not legally allowed to hold a patient against their will unless they contact law enforcement and show the patient presents harm to himself or others and needs to be held there or transferred to a mental health facility. The time period for this observation and evaluation is usually 72 hours. Based on his history and condition that is what the hospital should have done. But they are not obligated to do so.
That requirement is because medical providers don’t want you driving after procedures because often the procedure involves administration of medications which advice you not drive after receiving them. Even if you are not fully put under you might get an IV to help you relax to make the procedure more tolerable.
He was not discharged. He signed out AME.
parents WHO DID NOT CARE FOR THEIR OWN SON now looking for a payday.
“Well maybe Seth and Gayle should be suing themselves for familial abandonment and neglect ?”
In all fairness did the hospital even call the family and say “come get him”? I’d come get my kid.
“Kaelan lashed out and struck a nurse
Kaelan lashed out and found out .”
In the old days Kaelan was put in a Nervous Hospital with Nurse Ratched until he calmed his a$$ down. Not these days but we all know why.
Looks nothing like his parents. Apparently the mother FA-d with crazy and FO-d via her crazy son.
You start fighting the staff and saying you want to AMA, you’re going to be released. Most places wouldn’t give you an Uber, they would just send you out the door.
I can’t count the times we had someone who wanted to go somewhere and faked chest pain and AMA’ed before the ambulance got done with the paperwork.
Asked one “why don’t you call a cab?” “Because I would have to pay for it!”
At least he was honest.
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