Family Upset After Hospital Death Mix-Up

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A Brooklyn hospital may face charges after confusing a live patient with a recently deceased one. Ella Abrams was admitted to Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center because she was having trouble breathing, but when her concerned relatives called to check on her, a staffer had bad news. "She said, 'I'm sorry, she passed away,'" said the 93-year-old's great-granddaughter Jasmine Goodwin. In a horror movie turn, the family discovered their supposedly deceased relative at the hospital when they went to pick up her things. "I just walked up to her and I touched her head, and when I touched her head, her eyes opened and she turned her head," Goodwin said. "When she did that, I started screaming."

According to CBS2, a woman with a similar sounding name had passed away earlier that morning, leading to the mix-up and the trauma that ensued. Goodwin says she’s still in shock from the incident and the family may file charges. "We looking at emotional duress, emotional stress - you know, that's basically what our issue is," said her mother, and Abrams’s granddaughter, Tracie Covington. The hospital is investigating and says it "deeply regrets" the incident.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on February 28, 2010 11:05 AM

Comments [rss]

wingedearth

The mix-up is unfortunate, but why do we have a society where this is excuse enough for a lawsuit?

just saying

Yeah, I saw them on tv also.

The mother seemed genuinely upset, but the granddaughter and especially the greatgranddaughter Jasmine Goodwin are as phony as they come. You could almost see those two greedy women mentally counting the money they could get from a lawsuit.

learnedhand

Emotional DURESS is not a cause of action. Morons. It's emotional distress. And for your stupidity, you get nothing.

justthinkin

The fact that they're "looking" for anything would indicate that Grandma ain't leaving much behind in her will. I have to admit, though, that if I tapped my dead relative's head and it moved, I'd sue for a replacement pair of underwear.

Clarice City

The nurse telling a family that their loved on is dead over the phone is just plain bad form. Who the hell gave him/her the authority to do that? Isn't that something you do in person? Or at least makes SURE that the patient is dead?

But suing for it? Ghetto. Really ghetto.

jchez

93 and in bad health? The odds of the family getting another call, real soon, telling them that grandma is dead are really, really high.

"That which does not kill me, merely postpones the inevitable."

kane

What charges can they press? Nothing illegal seems to have happened.

corygreenwell

No hospital staff shouldn't make mistakes and tell people that their relative has died when they haven't. This is a classic prima facie case for negligent infliction of emotional distress.

bitchincamaro

"Suing for emotional stress"; calm down, understand that people make mistakes, be grateful your family member is alive and being cared for, and STFU.