A CT veteran spiked a high fever and died 2 days later. A lawyer alleges ‘an unforgivable mistake’ contributed to the death.

The administrator of the estate of a man who died of bacterial meningitis is claiming in a lawsuit that Suffield Medical Associates mishandled his care, partly by seeing him only in a telemedicine visit.

Jennifer Rossi is suing on behalf of Michael A. Rossi III, a Suffield native who, her attorney argues, should have been given antibiotics and sent to a hospital because he didn’t have a spleen.

A high fever is especially dangerous for people who have had their spleen removed, said John Houlihan of RisCassi & Davis of Hartford, who emphasized the alleged maltreatment of Michael Rossi rather than the remote visit.

“I don’t think it was necessarily the fact that they evaluated him with a telehealth visit, and they just dropped the ball, and maybe if he was in person it might have been different. I don’t know yet,” Houlihan said.

“But he had a history of having a spleen removed years and years ago, and patients without a spleen are at great risk for catastrophes if they have a fever and they’re not treated right away,” he said.

Houlihan said either the physician assistant who saw Rossi didn’t know about his lack of a spleen or that it wasn’t recorded properly in Rossi’s chart. “Either way, it’s an unforgivable mistake,” Houlihan said.

He said he didn’t know which mistake the physician assistant allegedly made because he hasn’t taken her deposition yet. Diaz is also a defendant in the lawsuit.

“I would like to think that if it was in person, they would have had a better chance to see that, but we won’t know that till we get into depositions. But it certainly was a big mistake,” he said.

According to the complaint, Michael Rossi contacted Suffield Medical Associates on June 23, 2022, complaining of a 104-degree fever, muscle pain, fatigue and a cough. The physician assistant saw him the same day in a telemedicine visit and diagnosed him with a fever and cough and told him to hydrate and to “reassess in 3 to 4 days if no improvement,” according to the lawsuit.

Two days later, on June 25, 2022, Rossi was taken by ambulance to Hartford Hospital in respiratory distress, where he died the same day from bacterial meningitis, the suit states.

The complaint states Suffield Medical Associates and the physician assistant failed to evaluate Rossi in person “in light of the serious risks” for a person without a spleen reporting a 104-degree fever, and that they failed to have him be seen in person after the telemedicine visit.

Also, the suit claims the physician assistant failed to prescribe antibiotics and that the defendants “failed to maintain proper patient records.”

Houlihan said while many people believe losing a spleen is not a major event, “your immune system is altered, and it just puts you at risk of bad consequences,” especially when there is a high fever.

“It’s well known. This is not a pie-in-the-sky kind of thing,” he said. “Your spleen does play a big role in your ability to fight off certain infections.”

Houlihan said he has expert testimony that taking antibiotics would have saved Rossi’s life.

Rossi was the father of a son. After graduating from college, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 2000 to 2004, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and a Stabilization Mission in Haiti, according to his obituary. He had been working for 14 years as a correctional officer with the Connecticut Department of Correction at the MacDougal Walker Correctional Institution and a member of the DOC Special Operations Group, the obituary said.

Donna Zito of Danaher Lagnese, who is representing the defendants, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.