Widow of Chancellor Critical of Hospital

Speaking publicly for the first time, the widow of community college Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin said Thursday that apparent delays in her husband’s treatment left her little choice but to file suit.

“I have two adult daughters who wonder why, and I have two small daughters who are missing their daddy,” said Karen Lakin, who filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Thursday against Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

“I’ve got a 6-year-old who says, ‘Why isn’t daddy here?’ ” she said. “That’s hard.”

The complaint, which also names six doctors who treated Lakin, alleges that the medical center failed to properly diagnose and treat the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, a fast-moving infection that killed Lakin within days.

The action seeks $250,000 in general damages, the maximum allowed for malpractice under state law, and more than $2 million for lost income. A six-week jury trial was requested.

Lakin, a 50-year-old long-distance runner who oversaw Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark colleges, died Nov. 27 after complaining for days of a severely sore throat.

He went to the Los Robles emergency room two days before he died, but was sent home hours later with a prescription for pain medication, said Sandra L. Tyson, the Lakin family attorney.

The chancellor awoke at his Thousand Oaks home on Saturday, Nov. 26, with severe pain and swelling in his leg, and returned to the hospital.

But the defendants “severely delayed in the administration of lifesaving antibiotics and other treatments and negligently delayed surgery until it was too late to be of benefit,” the suit says.

Ken Underwood, interim administer of Los Robles, said the suit came as a surprise because the family had indicated through a spokesman that they were satisfied with the medical attention given to Lakin.

But Karen Lakin said Thursday that she never told hospital staff members she was pleased with the care her husband received.

She also said she was not told about possible treatment in the hospital’s hyperbaric chamber, an oxygen-enriching process used on four others infected last year with the disease, called necrotizing fasciitis.

Lakin was never treated in the chamber, hospital officials said.

Los Robles maintains “an excellent staff of nurses and physicians that provides without question the best medical care in West L.A. and east Ventura County,” Underwood said.

“To reward a valiant effort with a lawsuit such as this is a complete injustice, and a clear link to why health-care costs have increased the way they have in the United States,” he said.

In addition to the hospital, the suit names physicians Alister A. George, John Larsen, Mark Mazur and Russell Nelson. It also names emergency room doctors Darrell L. Davey and Richard Midthun.

When told of the lawsuit, two of those physicians named as defendants said they were not surprised by the action.

“Those things happen,” said George, an infectious diseases specialist. George declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit.

But Nelson, an orthopedic surgeon called in late that Saturday to operate on Lakin, said the hospital and doctors did everything they could to save the chancellor’s life.

“I don’t think there was anything wrong with the medical care of this patient,” Nelson said. “I was called in late Saturday night and we took him to surgery immediately to try and save his life.”

Tyson said the case could go to trial as soon as this summer because there are children involved. State law allows cases involving children under the age of 14 to be moved ahead of other pending civil cases, she said.