A patient’s chest CT scan was delayed for over 10 hours before he died from a pulmonary embolism, and now his family has filed a lawsuit over his alleged wrongful death.
Andrew Garbor, 38, died at the Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center near San Diego in 2024 from the embolism — a major blood clot blocking the arteries of his lungs.
Gabor’s sister, Maria Healey, brought him to live with her family in Chula Vista while he was recovering from a significant infection before he died. At the time, Gabor worked two jobs and had type 2 diabetes, which made the road to recovery difficult, she told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Being the oldest sister, I just felt that need and desire to take care of him as the youngest brother,” Healey told the outlet. “Our mom wasn’t able to do it because she has MS, and so I offered to take him home, and he agreed to it.”
Not long after, Gabor began to experience extreme back pain and wound up in the emergency room on February 16, 2024. He had a herniated disc that later required spinal decompression and fusion surgery. While recovering from surgery, Gabor called his sister in a panic because he felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
“He was just really alarmed, almost in tears… he said… I’m just worried I might have had a heart attack. I’m not really sure what’s happening, maybe I’m having a panic attack or anxiety attack,” Healey recalled.
Healey arrived at the hospital just before visiting hours ended and found her brother experiencing severe chest pain, distressed breathing and a racing heart. When she returned the next morning, his condition had worsened significantly, and his skin appeared gray, according to the report.
Gabor died soon after on March 4, 2024, with his death certificate listing the cause as a bilateral pulmonary embolism.
Healey had concerns with the care her brother received — and felt her suspicions were only confirmed after she received the results of a state investigation by the California Department of Public Health.
A copy of the report revealed that a CT angiography of Gabor’s chest “was completed 12 hours after it was ordered,” according to the lawsuit.
“The report came almost an entire year after he died and, when I got it, I was shaking as I read through the papers,” Healey told the outlet. “I just couldn’t believe what they had found, and I felt vindicated that he shouldn’t have died, that I was right that something had happened, that this shouldn’t have happened.”
The scan had been ordered “STAT,” which investigators noted meant that staff “knew it was supposed to be completed ‘right away.’”
An interview with a hospital physician also “stated that the expectation was for a STAT order to be completed within one hour … or there was no point (in) ordering (it to be completed) STAT,” according to the lawsuit.
“I was very angry, very very upset, because, as his older sister, I felt like I was there to protect him, and I wasn’t able to do that,” Healey said. “I was told he was in the best place, that he would be given the best care possible, and it just wasn’t the truth.”
Healey filed the lawsuit against Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center in San Diego Superior Court on July 11, alleging wrongful death, abuse, neglect and negligence. The suit, served on Sharp last week, seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory money and reimbursement for attorney fees, according to the outlet.
Sharp declined to comment on the allegations to the Union-Tribune.
Medical experts say death from a pulmonary embolism is common, killing a person every six minutes, according to the National Blood Clot Alliance. Research has also found that the risks of clots forming increase with the length of a patient’s hospital stay, highlighting the need for more preventative measures.
Blood clots kill an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Americans each year, according to the National Blood Clot Alliance.
That startling statistic is “greater than the total number of people who lose their lives each year to AIDS, breast cancer and motor vehicle crashes combined,” according to the organization.
