Posted on 07/07/2005 1:20:28 PM PDT by Pharmboy
Los Angeles (Reuters) A California woman is suing a hospital for wrongful death because her husband fainted and suffered a fatal injury after helping delivery room staff give her a pain-killing injection.
Jeanette Passalaqua, 32, filed the suit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group Inc. in San Bernardino County state court last week.
In June 2004, Passalaqua's husband, Steven Passalaqua, was asked by Kaiser staff to hold and steady his wife while an employee inserted an epidural needle into her back, court papers said.
The sight of the needle caused Steven Passalaqua, 33, to faint and he fell backward, striking his head on an aluminum cap molding at the base of the wall.
Jeanette Passalaqua delivered the couple's second child, a boy, later that day. Steven Passalaqua, however, suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of his fall and died two days later, the lawsuit said.
The suit seeks unspecified damages related to Steven Passalaqua's death and to Jeanette Passalaqua's emotional distress at being widowed with two young children.
Because Passalaqua was solicited by Kaiser to assist in the epidural, the lawsuit said, the hospital "owed him a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent foreseeable injuries resulting from his participation."
A spokesman for Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente called the death "a tragic accident."
"Some of the allegations in the lawsuit are simply that -- allegations. The legal process is under way and we should respect that," said Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson.
As a physician, I once had a young woman hit the floor like a sack of rocks from me looking into her throat with a tongue blade. Some people are like that and the hospital should keep those folks away from medical procedures. They can't take it! Leave 'em home...
Hope they got a waiver. In any event, sometimes freak accidents just happen. Should have had a good life insurance policy - preferably one that doesn't exclude coverage for head injuries from aluminum protrusions.
Dumb question from a childless spinster....is it odd for the hospital staff to ask the husband to hold the wife down while inserting the needle?
Never mind sheer bad luck.
Who'da thought he'd hit himself in such a way that he would die from it?
Many people faint and fall in apparently bad ways but don't hemorrage and die. Others get unlucky and hit a badly placed item that increases chances of it being a fatal injury.
This is sheer bad luck.
I'm sick of sheer bad luck being a reason to sue others.
And I'm sick of sue-happy people - REGARDLESS OF THEIR PITIABLE CIRCUMSTANCES - whose childish, selfish reactions make you feel stone-cold against them during their bad times.
Hmph my hubby was there for all 3 births. Only problem he had was getting the mask on wrong the first time and fogging up his glasses!
susie
When did personal responsibility become extinct?
How about "Hey Doc, I really don't deal with needles well. Maybe you should get someone else."
Or - Help hold, but don't look.
The event sucks, but we shouldn't have to turn the whole world in a giant Nerf planet so no one ever gets hurt.
Ever wonder why medical insurance is too darned expensive....
I will be referring your comment to my wife. Be afraid, be very afraid.
This story above is really sad. I can just imagine hospitals now insisting that the father not be present.
I helped deliver my first child (breathing, cutting the cord, and holding my daughter before handing her to the doctor) and plan to do the same for my second. I expected to feel a little queasy but actually thought the experience was incredible.
He was known to drink a bit and also pretty comfortable with embellishing things. It may not have happened to him – heck, it might not have happened at all. Makes a good story though. True, too.
Be sure to tell Mrs. TX that 'twas just a joke, a funny, a harmless anecdote. : )
My son was born in July, 2003. I steadied my wife while they gave her the epidural several hours before our son was born.
His death was his own damn fault for being a freaking wuss. Sorry to use such "base" language here but, I feel it's true.
ANY judge worth his or her weight will throw this piece of S--- case right out and maybe hold the wife in contempt for bringing such a frivelous lawsuit.
What an f------ piece of s--- to bring this piece of s--- lawsuit.
Is there NO ONE that is responsible for his or her own actions or stupidity anymore?? Doesn't look like it.
GEEZZ this pisses me off!!
Our legal system marches on, crushing common sense in its path!
While video taping our newborn after a c-section, I looked over and notice that my unconscious wife’s guts were still exposed. I wheeled the lens around, zoomed in, and got some cool shots of her innards.
She has a Boston Irish redheaded temper.
I got a bit woozy during my wife's epidural, but that was a result of not having eaten anything in over 12 hours. Some orange juice fixed that, and I was right as rain in minutes, and had no problems watching every inch of my 8lb 7oz daughter arrive in the world a couple of hours later.
Exactly. Lawyers may aid and abet and encourage, but it's the "plaintiffs" who are ultimately to blame. If they didn't act selfishly and give into the temptations, lawyers wouldn't be so out of control now.
I got a little woozy myself watching that needle slowly disappear into my wife's spine.
I hope not. They shouldn't have had him hold his wife. You can be in the room without having to watch a big honkin needle stuck in your wife's back.
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