Lawsuit Filed After Songwriter Starves In Hospital

[spinbaby]

Julius Dixson, who wrote the 50s song "Lollipop," died of starvation in a New York hospital after the hospital lost his dentures. He died three years ago, but apparently the lawsuit was just now filed.

"Family members say before the surgery, a hospital staffer removed the elderly man's dentures, but after the surgery the dentures couldn't be found."

"According to Dixson Jr., over the next 13 days his father was fed some solid food, some soft food, all of which he had trouble eating. 'It hurt him to mesh the food with his gums. He said he needed his teeth,' Dixson Jr. said."

"A spokeman for the hospital, extending condolences to the family, said the treatment 'was completely appropriate.' "

"But Mitchel Ashley, an attorney for the family says, no it wasn't. 'Twelve days after surgery, he died from dehydration and starved to death in a hospital in the middle of New York City,' Ashley said."

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_029173038.html

[ncrainbowgrrl]

1. Speaking of awful errors...

GOD. WHAT A USELESS horrible mistake that caused DEATH. DEATH. IT's FINAL.

I wish the family the best, and feel for them in this awful time of their loved one's passing.

[ThomCat]

2. Their spokeman can say anything he wants.

If someone dies of something as simple as dehydration and starvation while in a hospital then people were not monitoring his condition. People screwed up badly and cost this man his life.
x(

[porphyrian]

3. This is fucking reprehensible and totally unacceptable.

If this is an example of how free market medical care works, it's time to give universal health care a shot.

[Mandate My Ass]

4. My son had a major surgery last Friday. Do not leave your loved

ones alone in a hospital for even a few hours, it's dangerous. This was a major metropolitan hospital too. The care he got was sloppy at best, dangerous at worst. I'm still formulating a letter of complaint because this needs to be documented and addressed. :grr:

[Alamom]

11. EXCELLENT ADVICE. We've lost 2 family members & we were watching.

We couldn't follow them to the operating room & stupid mistakes took my Brother and 20 years later, my Dad.

[melody]

5. Let's see if the authorities go after these guys like they did the doctors in NOLA

The doctors in NOLA had no other choice.

But these guys will get off without any charges and fade away.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Good point! nt

[Warpy]

6. This happens a LOT

and when I was getting somebody ready for surgery, I insisted s/he leave those dentures with a family member. If they had no one with them, I'd put them in a plastic baggie with their names inside and out, and lock them in the narcotics cabinet. The little buggers are really easy to lose in rumpled bedding and bedside clutter.

Mr. Dixon must have been near death, period. People don't starve in 13 days. It generally takes three times that, at least.

However, if his condition had been less grave, I don't doubt the hospital would have brought someone in to fit him with new dentures. They are liable for lost items like that.

The lawsuit might be more successful if he died of dehydration, but they're going to have to back that up with his lab work. The claim of starvation isn't going to get far.

[spinbaby]

7. When you think about it, questions arise

Such as, where was his family while he was starving?

I know from working with the hospice when my father dying, that when people are dying, they often stop eating and drinking and are uncomfortable if you force it on them. The man was 90, so you do have to wonder if he was not taking nourishment because he was, in fact, dying of old age. Still, he was healthy enough to do surgery on...

[Wiley50]

10. My Mom died Last march. That's what she did

I think it was a conscious decision on her part to end it.
She just stopped eating and drinking.

She was so tired after over a year fight with cancer

[truedelphi]

8. I beg to differ

He was elderly. He was not in great health.

I have seen terrible things in nursing homes. The state of California requires that every nursing home patient be weighed once a month - but let's face it - if you are admitted on January 31st, get weighed then but don't get weighed again until February 27th, you could be seriously ill from malnourishment by then. (I don't even know if hospitals are required to have the same once a month weight comparison for patients.)
Some medications often do not work unless you have a full stomach.

Thirteen days is a lot of time for a ninety year old to do without food. And why some Hospital Staff Member did not see to it that liquid foods such as "Ensure" were not provided in plentiful enough quantity, well that whole fiasco should be investigated.

Why it is that insurance companies, that carefully consider which surgical operations are appropriate for which patients, don't care more about the after surgery treatment, I don't know. I hear that some tremendously expensive heart operations are allowed for the elderly - but then the insurance will not cover the medicines that prevent infection - so the $80 k triple bypass gets done, but for wont of a $4K expense in meds, the patient dies.