Rutland hospital facing third wrongful death lawsuit of year

The Rutland hospital is facing its third wrongful death lawsuit this year.

The family of a Brandon man who died early last year after taking an insulin overdose and slipping into a diabetic coma is seeking $4 million from Rutland Regional Medical Center, according to papers filed earlier this month in Rutland Superior Court.

The lawsuit alleges the hospital prescribed five times the appropriate dosage of insulin to 68-year-old Robert Forrest.

Hospital vice president for corporate development Larry Jensen said the hospital has a policy of not commenting on legal matters.

Jack Welch, the attorney for the family, said Forrest had recently been switched from one form of insulin to another that was five times as concentrated, but health care providers at the hospital failed to take note of this in Forrest's chart when he went there in December 2006.

"He came to the hospital because he was suffering from the effects of unstable sugar levels that left him somewhat hypoglycemic," Welch said.

Forrest was stabilized and sent home, Welch said, with instructions to take "75 units" of insulin. Welch said the instructions did not specify a concentration, and when Forrest's niece called the hospital to double-check the dosage, she was assured it was correct and told Forrest should inject the insulin and eat supper.

Welch said Forrest went into a diabetic coma the next morning. Forrest's death certificate says he died Feb. 19, 2007, from complications of hypoglycemia brought on by insulin injection and he injected the wrong amount of insulin. The death was ruled an accident, according to the certificate.

Welch said it was not clear who switched Forrest to the higher concentration or why, but the records clearly show the switch took place in November 2006.

"The hospital evidently failed to take the time to read his chart and find he'd been changed," Welch said.

The lawsuit seeks "at least" $4 million.

"We've predicated the damages on the egregiousness of the error … in addition to the pain and suffering this man experienced," Welch said. "Here was a man who could, apparently, hear and see, but at the same time not communicate, not respond, not do anything, a classic form of pharmacologically induced locked-in syndrome."

Welch said Forrest was not completely unresponsive, but seemed to be able to respond to verbal stimuli by moving his eyes.

"The bottom line is, they need to be careful to not be giving out medical advice without being clear first that the charts support whatever advice they're giving," Welch said.

At least two other wrongful death lawsuits are pending against the hospital.

In February, Welch filed a $2.1 million lawsuit against the hospital on behalf of the family of an elderly woman who died after falling out of bed at the hospital. The lawsuit alleges the woman was not properly monitored.

Earlier this month, attorney Christopher Larson brought a lawsuit on behalf of the family of a Mount Holly man who died following an automobile accident. That lawsuit claims the man was killed by a combination of poor supervision, improper traction and the overuse of pain and muscle relaxing medications and seeks unspecified damages.