Family Sues Health Clinic Chain After Patient Dies

A family has sued Leon Medical Centers after video surfaced from a transport bus’s security cameras. According to the lawsuit, the victim, called “Ana” for this article, suffered a serious head injury in her home, and she was being transported to Leon Medical Center via a Leon Medical Center transport bus. On the way to the medical center, her condition began to rapidly deteriorate. A police report later said that Ana asked the bus driver to take her directly to the hospital as she was in significant distress. The driver denied that request and Duran died as a result. Now, Ana’s family is suing.

An attorney representing the family says that had the driver rendered immediate aid, Ana would still be alive. On the way to Leon Medical Centers, the bus passed a hospital while Ana was dying.

The video 

Video from inside the bus shows the elderly woman vomiting twice and then losing consciousness as she fell over another passenger. The plaintiffs contend that Ana remained in this condition for over an hour. It was until she finally reached the Leon Medical Center that someone called 911 and alerted paramedics. By the time they got there, Ana was unresponsive and she later died as a result of her injuries.

The defense 

Leon Medical Centers has not issued a defense to these accusations. They say that the injury to Ana’s head did not occur within the bus which is a fact that is not in dispute. The question of whether or not the injury occurred within the bus is not the central accusation of the claim. The claim says that failure to render asked-for aid in a timely manner resulted in her death. And there’s a video to prove it. The defense may contend that Ana never asked for help, but there are other patients on the bus who could corroborate her story. So the defense has taken the tack of playing dumb to the actual charges and pretending that they aren’t actually there.

Is playing dumb a viable defense? 

Not long term. But in the short term, the defense doesn’t want to tip their hand, commit to say anything specific about the facts of the case, or otherwise compromise their defense. However, a bus transport with several elderly people on it who are sitting next to a woman who is vomiting, losing consciousness, and asking to be brought to the hospital, is enough for a jury to side with the plaintiffs. In fact, the plaintiffs will be hoping for a jury trial so that they can rouse the jury’s anger at the bus driver’s indifference to the suffering of one of his passengers.

Talk to a Tampa Personal Injury Attorney Today 

If you or someone you love has been injured due to the deliberate indifference or negligence of another person, call the Tampa personal injury attorneys at The Matassini Law Firm today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about how we can help.