Suit over King death is settled

Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital.

Rodriguez’s death nearly two years ago attracted national attention, becoming a symbol of an indifferent emergency system. Her lack of treatment was a key event precipitating the closure of the long-troubled Willowbrook hospital after federal regulators determined that staffers had failed to deliver a minimum standard of care.

“There was a complete breakdown of common humanity in that waiting room,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Thursday. “That should never happen again. Now there is a $3-million exclamation mark on that point.”

Coming after decades of problems at the King facility south of Watts, Rodriguez’s death in the early morning of May 9, 2007, hit home in large part because the circumstances surrounding it were well-documented.

Rodriguez, 43, had been released from the King-Harbor emergency room just hours before her final visit -- at least her third in as many days to seek help for abdominal pain.

When she returned, a triage nurse dismissed her complaints. A security videotape showed a janitor mopping around Rodriguez and other staff walking past. Authorities also released two 911 calls of people pleading for help for Rodriguez as she lay in pain on the waiting-room floor.

In the first call, a dispatcher said help could not be sent because Rodriguez was already at a hospital. In the second, a dispatcher curtly told the female caller that it was not a “life-threatening emergency” and offered to give her the number for the business line.

County police officers ultimately arrested Rodriguez on an outstanding warrant, deciding she would get better medical treatment in jail than at the hospital. While in custody, she became nonresponsive and died.

Prosecutors later decided not to criminally charge the officers in her death, finding that they had acted with compassion and had been rebuffed by the nursing staff when they tried to get Rodriguez help.

Prosecutors also declined to file charges against Linda Ruttlen, whom they identified as the nurse on duty. They said that although she threatened to throw out a patient who complained about Rodriguez not getting care and then tried to encourage her colleagues to lie about the events that led up to the death, it was doubtful her actions were “a substantial factor” in Rodriguez’s death from a perforated bowel.

Rodriguez’s three children, ages 24, 25 and 27, alleged civil rights violations and medical malpractice and initially sought $1 million for every minute Rodriquez was denied treatment -- $45 million in all.

“This settlement is reasonable and fair, especially in this economy,” said Franklin Casco Jr., attorney for the children.

Rodriguez’s boyfriend, Jose Prado, who accompanied her to the hospital and placed one of the 911 calls from a pay phone, is in final negotiations to receive a separate $250,000 settlement.

Deputy County Counsel Roger Granbo said the settlement with the family served the best interests of the county because a trial might have resulted in a wide range of outcomes. Favoring the family, Granbo said, was the “compelling video” that might lead jurors to push for a much larger payout. Favoring the county, he said, was the possibility the court might determine the case to be strictly a matter of medical malpractice, which would cap the liability at $250,000.

A 2004 Times series on failures at what was then King-Drew Medical Center found that the county had paid $20.1 million in malpractice cases involving the hospital during fiscal years 1999 to 2003, more than any of the state’s other public hospitals or the University of California, once adjusted for the number of patients.

As the suit brought by Rodriguez’s children moved toward trial, a lawyer working for the county inadvertently made public an internal report prepared by an outside firm hired to assess the county’s liability risk. The assessment, reviewed by The Times, indicated Rodriguez could have been saved if she had been properly treated and suggested that the county attempt to settle the case or risk an “adverse” result.

Granbo said the county will not pursue a legal malpractice case against the contract attorney responsible for the error, David J. Weiss. “We’ve dealt with that internally,” Granbo said.

Asked if Weiss was financially sanctioned for the error, Granbo said: “You’re not going to get that out of me today. File a public records request and we’ll deal with it later.”

In recent weeks, county officials have announced preliminary plans to resume inpatient services at King through a partnership with the University of California.

“The circumstances that led to Edith Rodriguez’ death was an enormous tragedy that no one should ever endure, and one that will never be forgotten as we establish the highest level of quality medical care for South Los Angeles residents,” county Supervisor Gloria Molina said in a statement.

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garrett.therolf@latimes.com