Articles - Medical Malpractice
Wesley settles in ER dispute ::
(11 17, 2005)
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003
BY RON SYLVESTER
The hospital pays an undisclosed amount to the family of a man who died in its emergency department after a long wait.
To Pat Lee, the three-year-old court battle over her husband's death in the Wesley Medical Center emergency department wasn't about money.
But sometimes, the only way to end a lawsuit is with money. The Lee family and Wesley agreed Monday on a confidential settlement. It came the day before the second trial was to begin over the death of Dick Lee on Jan. 5, 2000.
Neither side could discuss the financial arrangements that finally brought the case to a close, but Pat Lee said she didn't relish the idea of another trial.
I'm relieved it's over," she said Monday. "It would have been quite an ordeal to go through again, butI would have done it."
Wesley chief executive David Nevill said through a spokeswoman, "The resolution was satisfactory to both parties."
The state's second-largest hospital nearly escaped paying anything on May 7, 2002, when a jury found Wesley not liable. But subsequent statements by a juror to The Eagle prompted the Lee family's lawyer, Brad Prochaska, to claim juror misconduct.
Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Clark ordered a rare recall of a jury. Jurors were put on the witness stand under oath to talk about their deliberations.
Several jurors said the deliberations included discussions of how a verdict against the hospital could affect health insurance rates and other issues that Clark later ruled were inappropriate. Clark ordered a new trial last fall.
Dick Lee, 55, died of heart failure after waiting an hour and 38 minutes in the Wesley emergency department complaining of chest pains.
Wesley contended throughout the case that a triage nurse correctly assessed Lee, a former smoker, as not an emergency case when he came to the hospital complaining of burning in his chest. The hospital said Lee's death came suddenly, unpredictably and unavoidably.
Pat Lee turned down a settlement offer prior to the first trial, which she said served as a public hearing of her complaints.
"I didn't go after the money," she said Monday. "It was never about that. I wanted to go after letting people know what happened and get Wesley to admit it did something wrong. I hope this kind of thing never happens again."
Wesley dodged admitting error when the jury ruled in its favor last spring.
"But I hope Wesley has made some changes in the way they do things," Pat Lee said. "Everybody deserves a chance."
Settlements are legally not an admission of fault.
But, Prochaska said, "the payment of money, to Pat Lee, is the best indication by the hospital they recognized their mistake . . . They're the ones who paid money, not us."
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