$1.7 Million Awarded to Son of Hoag Patient

An Orange County Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded $1.7 million to the toddler son of a Newport Beach man who died days after being quickly released from emergency-room care, despite complaints of sharp chest pains and a family history of cardiac problems.

The jury award in the wrongful-death lawsuit will be set aside for 21-month-old Jeffrey Alexander. His father, 25-year-old Chris Alexander, died of heart failure while alone in his car four days after twice visiting the emergency room at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in December 1995, according to attorney Chris Mears.

The sole defendant in the case was the emergency-room doctor, Robert Hooks, who treated Alexander, but the Newport Beach hospital will pay the award, Mears said.

Hooks and defense attorney Richard Madory did not return phone calls seeking comment late Wednesday.

During the six-day trial, the jury heard testimony that Chris Alexander was first stricken with chest pains during a telephone conversation with his mother on Dec. 3, 1995. Alexander’s father suffered similar symptoms in 1982 before he died of a hereditary heart disorder, Mears said.

At his mother’s behest, Chris Alexander went to the emergency room but was sent home by Hooks, who did not perform a heart test designed to detect serious heart conditions, Mears said.

Hooks refused to perform more tests even after Chris Alexander’s mother drove two hours from her desert home the same day to personally urge Hooks to conduct a more careful examination, Mears said.