Lawsuit: Mission Hospital negligent post-op care led to patient death
ASHEVILLE – Barbara Diane Walker Hoppes was a mail carrier in rural Rutherford County. She spent her days reaching across her body, dropping letters and packages in mailboxes, according to the attorney for her estate. It’s one of those unnatural repetitive motions that can lead to injury after years.
Hoppes, 54, went to Mission Hospital Feb. 24 for a spine surgery to remove a damaged, arthritic or herniated disc in her upper spine, according to court documents and her estate’s lawyer. The doctor also implanted a bone graft to fuse together the vertebrae in the area.
According to Columbia University Medical Center, these procedures typically carry low risk. Hoppes also had hardware from a previous procedure removed.
But for Hoppes, the surgery proved fatal. Nine months after death, Hoppes’ son and the administrator of her estate, Jonathan Ledbetter, filed a lawsuit against Mission Hospital. He is claiming that the hospital did not provide his mother adequate post-operative care, which ultimately led to her death.
The complaint, filed Nov. 27 in Buncombe County Superior Court, alleges that Mission was negligent in its care for Hoppes. Ledbetter is suing for more than $25,000 in relief. According to state law, medical malpractice damages are capped at $500,000.
What went wrong?
Hoppes’ problems began after the surgery ended while she was recovering in the hospital. She developed shortness of breath, struggled to swallow and reported a sore throat, according to the lawsuit.
Health care providers working at Mission did not provide adequate care for Hoppes after her operation, the lawsuit states.
The complaint includes a series of conjectures about how medical professionals at Mission failed to care for Hoppes, including falsely attributing her worsening condition to middle-aged anxiety. No one caring for Hoppes contacted a doctor as her health deteriorated until it was too late, the suit states.
The night of her surgery, she went into cardiac arrest. Medical personnel worked to resuscitate her. Tests revealed a hematoma at the surgical site that expended to her upper spine. A hematoma is bleeding under the skin, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
On Feb. 25, Hoppes underwent another operation to remove the hematoma. The next day, the hospital’s neurology department found that oxygen was cut off from her brain. She remained unconscious following the surgery.
Hoppes’ family took her off life support Feb. 28. She was 54.
“They didn’t follow the doctor’s orders,” Mark Melrose, the plaintiff’s attorney, told the Citizen Times Dec. 5. “When the patient has these signs or symptoms of a problem post-operatively then the physician should be contacted. That’s the nurses’ role, to contact a higher-level provider.”
But the lawsuit argued that didn’t happen. Mission did not properly monitor, observe and expeditiously intervene when Hoppes’ airway became obstructed, according to the complaint. It goes on to argue Hoppes would have survived if her hematoma were removed earlier.
“We do not comment on ongoing litigation and will defend ourselves through the legal process,” Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell told the Citizen Times in a Dec. 6 email.
Staff shortages potentially alleged as factor in death
The lawsuit conjectures that inadequate hospital staffing contributed to Hoppes' death.
More: Mission Hospital doctors oppose silencing governing documents in nail-biting vote
The Citizen Times previously reported that Mission’s direct patient staff decreased dramatically under HCA Healthcare leadership, which Lindell refuted. HCA, a Nashville-based for-profit company, bought the Mission Health system for $1.5 billion in 2019.
This list of defendants in the lawsuit could grow, depending on what the attorneys find in discovery, Melrose said. No doctors or nurses are currently cited as defendants in the lawsuit.
Hoppes by Mitchell Black on Scribd
“There is a lot of information that is not in the medical chart that people know, but they typically will not say unless they have to,” Melrose said.
Hoppes’ lawsuit joins the growing stack of litigation against Mission, which has become entangled with regulators.
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers and his wife Ashley are suing HCA, Mission and the doctor who delivered their son for botching his delivery.
A Candler resident, Donna Smith, sued HCA and Mission for injuries she sustained during a ride home Mission’s transportation vehicle. She also sued the driver. Smith died earlier this year, but her lawsuit will continue.
David John Hetzel, a longtime cancer doctor, sued HCA and Mission for erroneously reporting him to the national medical malpractice database, and failing to remove him from the database, despite receiving clearance from hospital staff and the state medical board. He argued that he was denied 15 job opportunities because of the report.
More: Pending Mission Hospital bylaws, policies threaten to punish doctors who speak out
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These lawsuits do not encompass the totality of litigation against the hospital.
The office of North Carolina Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein delivered notice to Dogwood Health Trust, indicating that HCA violated the commitments it made as part of the 2019 agreement to buy the Mission Health system. Stein’s office can sue HCA Dec. 10.
Dogwood is the nonprofit entity formed to receive the proceeds of the sale. It is responsible for enforcing the obligations HCA made as part of the purchase.
Stein’s office also demanded HCA hand over 41 sets of documents and communications regarding oncological and emergency services provided at Mission Hospital. A lawyer employed by HCA rejected the demand.
Mitchell Black covers Buncombe County and health care for the Citizen Times. Email him at mblack@citizentimes.com or follow him on Twitter @MitchABlack. Please help support local journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Mission Hospital patient dies after low-risk surgery lawsuit
