Hospital Therapist to Be Sued Over 1993 Death

In what is thought to be the first legal action stemming from last year’s “Angel of Death” case, a lawyer on Thursday filed papers declaring his intent to sue respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar and a Glendale hospital in connection with the 1993 death of a 91-year-old Los Feliz man.

Attorney Christopher Nicoll said he filed the papers on behalf of the family of John N. Schwartz, who he said died suddenly at Glendale Adventist Medical Center on May 31, 1993. Nicoll said Saldivar had access to Schwartz’s room.

Nicoll said Schwartz’s body was disinterred last year and autopsied by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner in connection with the investigation of Saldivar, who confessed to hastening the deaths of as many as 50 patients, but later recanted.

Although the investigation is continuing, police have said they lacked the evidence to charge Saldivar with any crime.

The results of the autopsy are under seal, Nicoll said, and investigators have declined to inform even Schwartz’s family of the findings.

“They’re being very secretive. They’re holding their cards too close to the vest,” he said.

Nicoll said the man’s remains were exhumed so he could be buried next to his wife on Catalina Island. But because of the circumstances surrounding the death, he said, Glendale police requested an autopsy shortly after the exhumation.

At the time of his initial confession, Saldivar told police he had used pavulon to hasten the deaths of some of his victims. A source familiar with the investigation, however, said there would have been little chance of detecting the presence of drugs administered six years ago.

Glendale Police Department spokesman Sgt. Rick Young declined comment on the results of the autopsy. He said no tests have been done on any bodies to search for the presence of pavulon or other drugs.

Alicia Gonzales, a spokeswoman for Glendale Adventist Medical Center, declined comment.

Nicoll said the court papers filed Thursday put the hospital and state medical board on notice of his intent to sue Saldivar and Glendale Adventist for malpractice.

In a separate action, Nicoll said he plans to file suit today alleging intentional wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He said the suit has merit whether or not Saldivar killed anyone.

“If he killed people, then he killed them, and that’s wrongful death” Nicoll said. “If he said he did these terrible things, then changed his mind and said he didn’t--that’s infliction of emotional distress.”

He said the hospital was included in the complaint under a theory of vicarious liability--that hospital officials allowed Saldivar access to the drugs he allegedly used to hasten the deaths of patients.

Saldivar was dubbed the “Angel of Death” after telling police on March 11, 1998, that he had committed mercy killings of as many as 50 terminally ill patients at Glendale Adventist between 1989 and 1997. He told police he had become angry at seeing patients’ lives unnecessarily prolonged and would kill those patients who were unconscious, had a “do not resuscitate order” on their charts and appeared ready to die.

According to a copy of Nicoll’s complaint, “John Schwartz met this criteria. [He] was suffering from numerous health complications, including Alzheimer’s disease, and had a do not resuscitate order. Defendant Saldivar was on duty at the time or Mr. Schwartz’s death and had access to him, and there were apparently no other persons present at the time of Mr. Schwartz’s untimely death.”

Shortly after confessing to police, he told a national television audience that he lied about the killings because he was suicidal and wanted to be found guilty and sentenced to his death.