Man in coma died after hospital wrongly took him off life support
A man in a coma, David Wells, died in 2021 after a hospital in Washington, USA, mistakenly removed his life support.
The incident was only investigated in 2024, with a civil lawsuit filed against PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center on 3 Dec, local news outlet KGW8 reported.
Wrong family contacted for end-of-life decision
Mr Wells was taken to the hospital on 8 Aug 2021 after choking on his dinner, causing him to have difficulties breathing and to lose consciousness.
Somehow, Mr Wells was misidentified as his roommate, Michael Beehler.
As a result, instead of contacting Mr Wells’ family, the hospital reached out to his Mr Beehler’s family, to make the decision about whether to disconnect life support.
“They said he’s basically brain dead,” said Mr Beehler’s sister, Debbie Danielson. “Do you want us to keep him on life support, or do you want to pull the plug?”
Unknowingly, Ms Danielson made the decision to end life support for someone she believed was her brother.
According to KGW8, she then proceeded to make funeral arrangements, inform other family members about her brother’s death, and post an obituary in the newspaper.
Source: KGW News on YouTube
Much to Ms Danielson’s surprise, Mr Beehler later called her, alive and well.
“I said, ‘You can’t be alive. You’re dead,” Ms Danielson recalled.
Deceased’s family was not informed of the mix-up
Following the mix-up, the Clark County Medical Examiner retrieved the body and confirmed it was Mr Wells. They then notified his next-of-kin, his son, Shawn.
“They basically told me there was a medical emergency regarding my father. He had been pronounced dead,” Shawn Wells said.
No one, including the medical examiner, the hospital, or the funeral home, informed him about the error.
Source: KGW News on YouTube
“I’m at a loss for words how badly they handled this,” the younger Wells expressed. “I’ll never be able to get that decision back.”
Hospital has made improvements to its protocols
Following the initial report by KGW8, the Washington Department of Health launched an investigation into the hospital, uncovering two violations.
The hospital lacked a system to ensure proper staff training in verifying patient identities, and it did not have a reliable method for identifying each patient.
Source: KGW News on YouTube
However, the hospital was not issued a citation for either violation as it had since made improvements, said investigators.
There were no further incidents of misidentification.
“PeaceHealth has worked diligently to strengthen our patient identification processes, along with our continued collaboration with multiple community agencies involved in healthcare, including EMS,” PeaceHealth spokesperson Debra Carnes told KGW8.
In addition to PeaceHealth’s civil lawsuit, Mr Shawn Wells, Mr Beehler, and Ms Danielson filed separate cases against the ambulance company, the funeral home, and the medical examiner’s office.
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Featured image adapted from Sean Malowney on Google Maps, KGW News on YouTube.
