Man faints, dies after seeing epidural

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U2Girl1978

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Wife sues California hospital for wrongful death

Updated: 9:52 a.m. ET July 8, 2005
LOS ANGELES - A California woman is suing a hospital for wrongful death because her husband fainted and suffered a fatal injury after helping delivery room staff give her a pain-killing injection.

Jeanette Passalaqua, 32, filed the suit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group Inc. in San Bernardino County state court last week.

In June 2004, Passalaqua’s husband, Steven Passalaqua, was asked by Kaiser staff to hold and steady his wife while an employee inserted an epidural needle into her back, court papers said.

The sight of the needle caused Steven Passalaqua, 33, to faint and he fell backward, striking his head on an aluminum cap molding at the base of the wall.

Jeanette Passalaqua delivered the couple’s second child, a boy, later that day. Steven Passalaqua, however, suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of his fall and died two days later, the lawsuit said.

The suit seeks unspecified damages related to Steven Passalaqua’s death and to Jeanette Passalaqua’s emotional distress at being widowed with two young children.

Because Passalaqua was solicited by Kaiser to assist in the epidural, the lawsuit said, the hospital “owed him a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent foreseeable injuries resulting from his participation.”

A spokesman for Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente called the death “a tragic accident.”

“Some of the allegations in the lawsuit are simply that --allegations. The legal process is under way and we should respect that,” said Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson.
 
:shocked: How on earth can they hold the hospital responsible? It's tragic and goes to show why men could never bear children. I hope it's thrown out of court. Gee I wonder why insurance and medical care costs so much.:rant:

I just re-read that and it sounded harsher than I meant. I'm sure the wife is really suffering right now and I'm sure being faced with raising the baby alone is awful. I'm just tired of people trying to hold everyone else responsible for bad luck.
 
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I agree, it is sad for the wife... but unless I am missing something, it was a lot of bad luck and the hospital does not seem to be responsible...
 
I agree, it was only an accident, but maybe if the case goes to court at least it can set some kind of precedent that will encourage (or I guess force) hospitals to be more careful about this kind of thing. I know even when I go over to Health Services on campus for routine vaccination, you HAVE to lay down and then sit there for a few minutes b/c people DO say they're fine and then end up fainting as they're standing up or walking out. The birth of a baby is definitely 100x more scary and then combine that w/ a needle going into someone's back.....ick. I've never had trouble w/ needles, but that doesn't mean others don't and in times like this you really need to go with the lowest common denominator, so to speak. Perhaps in the future, only hospital personel should be involved with administering the epidural.
 
Palace_Hero said:
All I know is that if I had to help my wife and died as a result, she'd not hear the end of it from me.

That could be true... maybe the hospital hid some information from her...
 
Palace_Hero said:
All I know is that if I had to help my wife and died as a result, she'd not hear the end of it from me.

Dead or not you'd not hear the end of it from her. She's the one in labor having a giant needle pushed through her spine and he faints.
 
I'm sad for the wife, but how is the hospital responsible? They couldn't help it that the guy fainted at the sight of a needle. Sheesh.
 
since he was asked to assist with the epidural, i believe the hospital is responsible.
 
Men or whatever friend is usually asked to let the woman brace themselves against them since movement could paralyze her. It's just how it's always done. He shouldn't have looked at the needle.
 
U2Girl1978 said:
Passalaqua’s husband, Steven Passalaqua, was asked

as far as i ever knew, questions require one of TWO answers, YES or NO

no one forced this guy to say yes and agree to assist in the procedure. perhaps if someone had, then i could see how the hospital is responisible, but right now i just don't.
 
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