Claim Filed in Man’s Death at King/Drew

The mother of a 28-year-old man who died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center has filed a claim against Los Angeles County, alleging that a nurse at the public hospital failed to watch over him and falsified his medical records.

Mario Nelson died Oct. 7 after an intensive-care nurse turned down the volume on his vital-signs monitor, then failed to notice his heart was barely beating, county health officials have said.

In their investigation, hospital officials discovered that Nelson’s nurse noted in his chart that he was stable when he was already dead. The nurse, who was caring for one other patient, apparently made the note earlier in the day but indicated her observations were made at 6 p.m. The patient died about 5 p.m.

Nelson was ill with AIDS-related pneumonia, county health officials have said. His mother, Brenda, said she believes her son would be alive if the nurse had paid attention to his monitor.

“I’m trying to cope with it, but it’s so hard,” she said. “He had been in there two weeks. He was supposed to come home that Friday or Saturday. [His death] was the biggest shock to me ever.”

Nelson’s lawyer, Eugene “Chip” Matthews, said if his client won any money, she would set up a hotline for patients to report problems at the hospital.

“I feel that this nurse’s actions are emblematic of a greater problem at King/Drew,” he said.

Nelson said she doesn’t want her son’s death to harm the hospital. “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch,” she said. “That hospital is a good hospital. It’s just [the nurse’s] negligence makes everybody look bad.”

Under state law, the county has 45 days to respond to the family’s claim before a lawsuit can be filed.

John Wallace, a spokesman for the county Department of Health Services, declined to comment on Nelson’s claim.

Federal inspectors and a national accrediting group also are looking into Nelson’s death.

Authorities have threatened to pull King/Drew’s federal funding and its accreditation because of patient deaths, medication errors and the use of Taser stun guns on mental patients.

The county is paying a private consulting firm $13.2 million over the next year to assume day-to-day management at King/Drew and correct its problems. Navigant Consulting’s first day was Monday.