Jury Awards Widow $1.7 Million in Suit Over Patient’s Death

A jury has awarded $1.75 million to a woman who filed a civil lawsuit against Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, claiming that actions by hospital officials led to her husband’s death.

Frank Wood, 46, a software executive, underwent elective surgery at the hospital in January, 1993, for inflammation of the colon. He died several days later from what hospital officials called an “unavoidable, post-surgical complication.”

The jury’s verdict, delivered Friday in Van Nuys Superior Court, ended a monthlong trial and two years of legal sparring over the claim by Wood’s wife, Laura, that hospital staff members did not recognize his condition had deteriorated after the administration of morphine.

“This was a series of mistakes,” Wood said Monday in an interview. “If only one link in that chain had been broken, if only someone there had done their job properly, then I believe my husband would still be with us.”

Wood now lives near Thousand Oaks with her two daughters, ages 3 and 13.

Hospital officials issued a prepared statement saying they are “shocked and dismayed” by the jury decision.

“We are of the opinion that the jury was overcome by sympathy for the widow and the minor children of Mr. Wood,” the statement said. “The hospital intends to seek a new trial.”

Wood went to the Valencia hospital for the Jan. 18, 1993, operation because it was the closest hospital to his Newhall home, his wife said. She said their second daughter had been born at the same hospital 16 months earlier with no problems.

Wood’s surgery went as expected, but Laura Wood said he was “extremely groggy” when she visited him about 8:30 a.m. the next morning. She blamed a morphine drip for the problem.

“I could not wake him up by speaking with him,” she said. “I shook him very vigorously at that point to get any response from him at all. At that point he groaned, he didn’t speak to me.”

Frank Yusuf, a doctor at the hospital, prescribed 155 milligrams of morphine for Wood during an 18-hour time span, said Russell Kussman, Laura Wood’s attorney and a former pharmacist. Yusuf was cleared by the jury of charges in the suit that he, in addition to the hospital, was liable for the death.

Yusuf’s attorney said the morphine dosage was not fatal.

“It’s the higher end of the dose range, but it’s not a high dose at all,” said attorney Alan Rushfeldt.

Wood said that although she was concerned that her husband seemed too groggy, she did not believe at the time that he was in life-threatening danger.

“It never entered my mind that he could die,” she said. “I thought he was over-medicated, but thought something could be done about it. At that point my view of doctors, nurses and health care professional was much different than it is now.”

When she returned to the hospital about 1:30 p.m. after going to a job interview, her husband was not breathing and had no pulse.

Wood alerted medical staff, who were able to resuscitate her husband, but by then he had suffered brain damage. Life-support systems used to keep him alive were disconnected a few days later.

Medical experts testifying on behalf of the hospital stated that Wood died from choking on his own vomit shortly before his wife discovered him. Rushfeldt said a nurse had checked on Wood about 15 minutes before then and nothing appeared to be wrong.

The jury, after deliberating for a day and a half, voted unanimously that the hospital was liable.

Wood said she hopes the verdict will send a message.

“I was so amazed such a thing could happen,” she said. “I think people need to know that when they have people in hospital, loved ones, they can’t just leave them there and trust the doctors and nurses.”