Thursday, November 8, 2007

Farmer files suit vs. county for spouse's death

by Kenneth Lassiter

The widow of an Oskaloosa man who died after a September 2006 accident along K-4 Highway has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging the actions of county paramedics led to her husband’s death.

Barbara Farmer filed a lawsuit Oct. 25 against the county emergency medical service as well as the board of county commissioners. Her late husband, Terry Farmer, died Sept. 21, 2006, after a rollover accident near milepost 337 just north of 39th Street.

Farmer alleges through her attorney, L.J. Leatherman of Topeka, that an American Medical Response ambulance was first on scene after the late afternoon accident and treated her husband appropriately. The lawsuit states Farmer was not combative and was prepared and ready for transport to the hospital.

The lawsuit alleges at that point the county emergency medical services ambulance arrived on scene and then spent 29 minutes working on Farmer.

“During this time, they took this patient with a normal oxygen level, airway, pulse, pressure and adequate ventilations, who was no longer combative, and they paralzyed the patient, placed a tube into his esophagus, failed to recognize that lethal error and proximately caused his death by the time they arrived at the hospital,” the lawsuit states. “The medical record shows progressive bradycardia and hypoxia after the medics paralyzed the patient, consistent with a missed esophageal intubation causing anoxic brain injury and death. The autopsy report is confirmatory, finding no other injury sufficient to explain Terry Farmer’s death.”

The lawsuit goes on to state the county’s protocol for the procedure, known as Rapid Sequence Induction, states the indication for its use is a “critical need for airway control in combative patients with compromised airways.” Barbara Farmer alleges her husband wasn’t in that state and there was “no justifiable indication” to use the procedure.

Farmer alleges the paramedics were negligent by using RSI when it wasn’t indicated and were “grossly negligent” for failing to recognize the failed intubation in a patient they had paralyzed. Farmer asserts this negligence led to her husband’s death.

The lawsuit concludes by requesting damages in excess of $75,000 and a jury trial. A hearing on the matter wasn’t set as of Friday morning.