Simi Valley Obstetrics Patient Sues Northridge Hospital

A Ventura County woman sued Northridge Hospital Medical Center for $5 million Thursday, alleging she suffered “severe emotional distress” after being denied an epidural anesthetic during childbirth because she could not ante up $400 in cash while in labor.

The suit by Julie Tichenor of Simi Valley, who gave birth last year, came the same day that hospital officials apologized in a news conference to a Medi-Cal patient who was denied epidural anesthesia while giving birth to her child at the hospital last summer.

The hospital’s president, chief of staff, head of obstetrics and others expressed regret that Ozzie Chavez, a Canoga Park mother of five, was refused an epidural block because she could not pay cash in advance to the anesthesiologist.

“We sincerely regret the experience this individual patient had,” said Mary Cirricione, director of women’s and children’s services at the hospital. “We have taken steps to ensure that this will never again happen at Northridge Hospital.”

But the attempt at smoothing over the case did not impress a state health agency.

Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Health Services, ridiculed the hospital’s contention that anesthesiologists there demanded advance payment for epidurals--a form of spinal block used frequently in childbirth--because Medi-Cal did not cover them.

He also said the hospital was “stretching the truth” when it claimed that Chavez was the only woman to be denied an epidural at the hospital.

“Are they still asserting that it’s a non-covered benefit after all . . . they’ve been through and all we’ve been through?” August asked. “It’s just plain wrong. I’m incredulous.”

In a press release, the hospital said that anesthesiologists working there demanded advance payment for epidurals “because Medi-Cal considered epidural anesthesia a non-covered service.”

Northridge Hospital President Roger Seaver said the state’s policy on whether an epidural were covered by Medi-Cal was “ambiguous.”

“It has never been ambiguous,” said August, whose department has repeatedly said that epidurals are covered for all beneficiaries upon request, unless there is a medical reason not to use one. He also said that it was disingenuous to claim that Chavez was the only woman denied an epidural at Northridge Hospital, because the practical result of a policy requiring advance payment is that those women who do not have the ability to pay do not receive the treatment.

“To tell women in advance that this service is not available unless they make some sort of payment, and then to say that because the women therefore did not ask that there was no denial, is ridiculous,” August said.

Simi Valley lawyer John R. Malmo contends in the Tichenor suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys, that his client suffered personal injury and emotional damages, as well as a loss of earning capacity, because of her experience giving birth last year. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The suit claims Tichenor was admitted to the hospital exactly one year ago today in labor. She was in severe pain and specifically requested an epidural anesthetic, but hospital employees refused to provide one unless Tichenor paid $400 on the spot, according to the suit.

Because Tichenor did not have the money, she did not receive the anesthetic, the suit alleges.

“This outrageous conduct by the defendant was done with the intention of causing, or was done in reckless disregard of the probability of causing, plaintiff severe emotional distress,” the suit states.

Hospital officials declined to comment Thursday, saying they had not seen the Tichenor suit and knew nothing about it.