Track Star Joyner’s Family Sues Hospital in Her Death

The family of track star Florence Griffith Joyner is blaming a St. Louis hospital for her death, charging in a lawsuit that doctors failed to detect a brain abnormality two years earlier.

Joyner was rushed to Washington University’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital in April 1996 after suffering a seizure on a flight to St. Louis, where she was to attend a relay race.

The lawsuit, filed in a Missouri court under pseudonyms, says that hospital workers improperly interpreted an MRI and other tests. The family argues that the tests should have uncovered her medical condition, in which the blood vessels in the brain tighten and cause seizures.

The suit accuses the hospital of neglecting to compare those scans to previous tests and not reviewing her medical records.

Joyner died at her Mission Viejo home in September 1998 at age 38. The Orange County coroner concluded that she suffered an epileptic seizure and probably suffocated in her bed.

The plaintiffs are listed as Al Jones, Mary Ruth Jones and the estate of Florence Jones. Sources close to the case said the actual plaintiffs are Al Joyner, Florence’s husband, Mary Ruth Joyner, her young daughter, and the estate of Florence Griffith Joyner.

Medical malpractice experts said that if the family is to prevail, it must prove that the care the athlete received fell below the industry standard and contributed significantly to her death.

“Normally, if [hospital officials] think they didn’t do anything wrong, they won’t settle these cases. But it’s a high-publicity case, and it invokes some sympathy,” said Marshall Silberberg, a medical malpractice defense attorney in Orange County. UCLA law professor Gary Schwartz said it is relatively common for families to file lawsuits accusing doctors of failing to diagnose fatal conditions. Those suits are difficult to win, he said, but Joyner’s celebrity status makes this case a bit different.

“Hospitals don’t want publicity. That might increase the hospital’s motivation to settle,” Schwartz said. “The hospital might fear a sympathetic jury and more publicity to the case because of her celebrity.”

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is one of the top-ranked hospitals in the country. Last month, U.S. News and World Report published a survey that said Barnes-Jewish had the ninth-best neurology department in the nation. The same survey listed Barnes-Jewish as the country’s seventh-best hospital overall.

The hospital declined to comment on the suit, citing its policy against discussing pending litigation. Al Joyner’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said his client “prefers to make no statement at this point.”

Florence Griffith Joyner’s death stunned fans across the world. Known as “Flo Jo,” Joyner set world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and tied an Olympic record by winning four medals, three of them gold, at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Her death spurred a series of lawsuits within her family, but those appear to have been resolved. Al Joyner and Florence Griffith Joyner’s mother dropped three lawsuits they had filed against each other, according to court records.

Two of the cases involved a Rancho Santa Margarita condominium, owned by the Joyners, where the track star’s mother had lived rent-free since 1991. Al Joyner tried to evict 70-year-old Florence D. Griffith after his wife’s death.

In her lawsuit, Florence D. Griffith contended that her daughter and son-in-law had told her she could live in the condominium the rest of her life. She sought an order enabling her to stay; Al Joyner filed a counter lawsuit seeking to evict her. The court records do not indicate how the issue was settled.

Florence D. Griffith also dropped a lawsuit in May that had accused Al Joyner of negligence she alleged contributed to her daughter’s death. It did not cite any specific instances of negligence.