2 Morphine Deaths in Hospital Probed, Listed as Homicides

Santa Monica police are investigating the deaths last year of two post-operative patients from morphine overdoses at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center.

Police launched an investigation last August after the Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled that both deaths were homicides. The cases were not made public until now, however, after the family of one of the patients sued the hospital for negligence. Police say they have no suspects and few leads.

The two patients, a 65-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, died within 12 days of each other last year after undergoing routine back surgery at St. John’s.

Police investigators said they have pored over medical records, narcotics logs and hospital employment records. They have also interviewed hospital staff members who had contact with the two patients as well as family and friends.

So far, police say they have found no evidence to indicate error by the hospital in the deaths. All morphine at the hospital has been accounted for after review of drug records, police and hospital officials said.

The first death occurred April 30, 1988. Florriell Woodard of Los Angeles went into cardiac arrest 20 hours after surgery and died, police said. A coroner’s toxicology examination revealed an overdose of morphine was found in her blood, coroner’s spokesman Bob Dambacher said.

A lawsuit filed by Woodard’s two daughters alleges that the hospital acted with negligence and “willful and conscious disregard for (Woodard’s) safety” by failing to warn her of the dangers. The suit, filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, also accuses the hospital of failing to inform the family of the true cause of Woodard’s death and of refusing to turn over medical records.

Armen Markarian, a spokesman for St. John’s, said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the allegations.

‘Speedy Resolution’

“We hope this is brought to a speedy resolution,” Markarian said of the police investigation.

According to the Woodard lawsuit, the woman was recovering normally in the first hours after surgery then died four hours after an injection of morphine that may have been as large as 150 milligrams.

The second death occurred on May 11, 1988. Twelve hours after his surgery, Anton Kudelka of Thousand Oaks also went into cardiac arrest and died, police said.

The hospital is also being sued by Kudelka’s widow and two sons.

Santa Monica Detective Shane Talbot, who is heading the investigation, said the “complexity” of the case had made it difficult to come up with substantial leads.

Both lawsuits are pending.

No Suspects

Talbot said police have no suspects but are “working on a few things” that may eventually turn up leads. He declined to elaborate on details.

Last year, the nurse of an AIDS patient at St. John’s pleaded no contest to charges that he tried to kill the patient with an overdose of insulin in 1986. The nurse, Hal Speers Rachman, 41, of Venice was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Talbot said the hospital, served with search warrants last August when the investigation was started, has been cooperating “fully.”