News story
Complaint lodged in hospital death
By Sheba R. Wheeler
Denver Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 11, 2001 - Officials at Denver Health Medical Center are
investigating a family’s complaint that paramedics and hospital staff
mistreated their relative the night he died.
Family members of John Stacey Houston, 37, of Denver are also seeking an
autopsy independent of the one done by the Denver coroner’s office because of
apparent discrepancies over what killed him.
Houston, 37, a diabetic, suffered an apparent
low-blood-sugar attack on March 31 and died about 45 minutes after he arrived
at Denver Health. The father of seven had been a food service
worker at the hospital.
Doris Houston, the victim’s mother, said paramedics administered an IV to
Houston at his home that sent his blood sugar higher in a few minutes. She
said the paramedics told her son that he was "acting sick" for no reason,
tried to force him to walk and pushed food into his mouth despite his protests
that he was in fact ill.
At the hospital, doctors said they were perplexed by Houston’s death, Doris
Houston said.
"I just want to know why my son, who was walking and talking to me, could just
die," Doris Houston said. "If he was sick because of his low blood sugar, I
would expect that a level one trauma unit would have been able to stabilize
him and have him home to me that very night. But if my son is
dead because of someone’s mistake, I want everyone to know about it."
The hospital’s Risk and Quality Assurance Department is carrying out the
investigation, said Sara Spaulding, a hospital spokeswoman.
Doris Houston said an investigator from the coroner’s office told her that
John Houston died from internal bleeding that occurred when his liver was torn
by ribs broken during CPR attempts.
But Chief Deputy Coroner Michelle Weiss-Samaras said the family was told that
the laceration was not the cause of death. Toxicology tests won’t be completed
for another three to six
weeks.
"The (liver) injury did not have anything to do with
his death," Weiss-Samaras said. "It was related to aggressive attempts to save
his life."
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