Patient Deaths Inquiry Opens

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced Monday that his office has opened a preliminary inquiry into the deaths of patients at troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Cooley acted at the request of county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who raised concerns about the deaths of two patients in King/Drew’s intensive care unit in October and November.

Yaroslavsky and his fellow supervisors are under immense pressure to improve care at the county-run hospital in Willowbrook, just south of Watts.

“There appears to be an atmosphere pervading this unit of the hospital that fosters unethical and unprofessional behavior, which may be leading to criminal acts as well,” Yaroslavsky wrote in a letter to Cooley. “While the Department of Health Services has commenced its own internal investigation, it is patently obvious that this behavior goes beyond a mere violation of medical regulations or hospital rules.”

In a statement, Cooley said his inquiry could lead to a formal criminal investigation if the facts warrant.

The intensive care unit probe is the latest in a series of problems facing King/Drew, which is on the cusp of losing its national accreditation and, perhaps, its federal funding.

The first death that Yaroslavsky’s letter referred to occurred Oct. 7. A nurse silenced the alarm on Mario Nelson’s vital-signs monitor, then failed to notice the 28-year-old man’s heartbeat fading, according to county health officials and the nurse’s suspension letter. Officials also allege that the nurse falsified Nelson’s medical chart, indicating that she had found him stable at 6 p.m. -- more than an hour after he had died.

The letter also referred to the death of a 47-year-old woman Nov. 18. Officials would not identify the patient. Health officials said last week that the woman died after a nurse ignored her deteriorating condition over the course of a day, neglecting to alert doctors until the patient was in cardiac arrest.

In addition, the nurse allegedly falsified records to indicate that she had checked the woman’s vital signs when she hadn’t, officials have said. The nurse is accused of getting the patient’s file after her death and adding notes about the woman’s final hour, then lying about doing so, health officials said.

Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county health department, said he welcomed the district attorney’s inquiry.

The alleged actions of the King/Drew nurses “clearly are outside the bounds of nursing practice and outside all the rules,” he said. “Where it reaches criminality in healthcare, I’m not sure.”