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A woman is suing a hospital for -- she says -- leading her to believe her brother was brain dead.
So after a couple of days, she decided he could be removed from life support.
(She says she thought her brother didn't look right in the hospital, but thought the swelling she saw had just distorted his face.)
It was only found out WEEKS later -- after an autopsy no less! -- that it wasn't her brother.
She says she's devastated that she pulled the plug on the wrong guy.
(The story says apparently the hospital had mixed up records of two men who had smilier names.)
I didn't see anything in the story about, the family and relatives of the guy who actually was removed from life support. So where are they? And are THEY suing?
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 8 days ago)
35,633 posts, read 17,968,125 times
Reputation: 50660
I guess that's what happens when you don't know what your brother looks like.
I wonder how they learned in autopsy that he wasn't who they thought he was?
Her mistake is more grievous than the hospital's, IMHO. She signed something swearing he was her brother, and she had no reason to do that - she didn't know him well enough to ID him, nor did the extended family she brought forth to ID him also.
They should have said sorry, I don't know him well enough to identify him.
I'm not sure she has a case. The deceased's family might have a case, except he was there for weeks. Not like this happened over a 24 hour period.
Interesting, weeks later when she learned he was living, she went to a court appearance that was scheduled "just to lay eyes on him". She doesn't have a relationship with him, doesn't really know him, she shouldn't be IDing people she can't recognize correctly.
I guess that's what happens when you don't know what your brother looks like.
I wonder how they learned in autopsy that he wasn't who they thought he was?
Her mistake is more grievous than the hospital's, IMHO. She signed something swearing he was her brother, and she had no reason to do that - she didn't know him well enough to ID him, nor did the extended family she brought forth to ID him also.
They should have said sorry, I don't know him well enough to identify him.
I'm not sure she has a case. The deceased's family might have a case, except he was there for weeks. Not like this happened over a 24 hour period.
Interesting, weeks later when she learned he was living, she went to a court appearance that was scheduled "just to lay eyes on him". She doesn't have a relationship with him, doesn't really know him, she shouldn't be IDing people she can't recognize correctly.
I imagine her only viable claim could be emotional distress (which it seems is what her claim is).
Hospital seems pretty damn negligent but the biggest and really only victims here (imo) are the dead guy and his family - whoever, wherever they are. It sucks for this woman that she authorized the death of some random guy, but she had her own doubts that it was her brother so imho she isn't entirely blameless. It's not like she genuinely swears she had no idea and really did think it was him, she freaking admits she and others in the family initially didn't think it was him. I mean sure, one probably wouldn't expect something like this to happen, they'd expect the person to be properly identified, so maybe they're thinking they must be wrong and just somehow aren't recognizing him, but thinking it doesn't look like your brother should maybe cause you to act, question it, say something, idk. I wonder if she's comparatively negligent.
Was a drug overdose something her brother could have reasonably experienced, or did he have no history of drug use? How many details did they get about what happened, where he was found, etc.? If my brother showed up at a hospital already almost dead and couldn't speak for himself, I'd be asking a ton of questions, getting as much info as I can, but that's just me. But they must not be a very close family if they didn't even know the guy was in jail. What a mess.
Sad case, but you never know. I was having some major dental work done, and my (now deceased) wife told the dentist that she knew I didn't want to live in pain, so if things went bad, to go ahead and just "pull the plug". The good Dentist enjoyed a hearty laugh at that one.
That's a crazy story. Could you imagine if they didn't catch it and he showed up on her front door step?
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