Trial begins Monday for family suing Wooster Community Hospital over woman's 2018 death

WOOSTER – Family of an 81-year-old woman who died in 2018 and Wooster Community Hospital will square off in court Monday over her death.

Dorothy Campbell's survivors filed a lawsuit alleging medical negligence and improper care, saying she suffered a fractured hip during occupational therapy and died six days later.

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Wooster Community Hospital denies any negligence or wrongdoing in the case, according to documents filed by the Wooster Community Hospital Foundation.

"As set forth in the court filings, any allegations of inappropriate or negligent care are denied," the hospital wrote in a public statement. "Further, while unfortunate, the alleged injury and death of Mrs. Campbell was not the result of negligence or improper care."

Campbell's estate is represented by attorney Allen Tittle.

A Wayne County Common Pleas jury will be asked to determine whether the hospital was at fault and any compensation as the trial gets underway Monday morning.

Plaintiff: Fractured hip and death caused by negligent staff

Before Campbell's death, she was admitted to Wooster Community Hospital on Aug. 18, 2018, nearly five months after undergoing total hip replacement surgery, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit contends an occupational therapist assistant failed to read updated nursing notes about Campbell's condition that spelled out that Campbell needed the help of two medical staff members to get in and out of her bed, according to a spokesperson for Tittle's office.

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The complaint alleges a therapist began to move Campbell from her bed to the restroom on Aug. 30. That's when the therapist "dropped or failed to prevent Campbell" from falling, causing a hip fracture, broken leg and other injuries.

She became "severely debilitated" and died six days later on Sept. 5, according to the complaint.

The complaint accuses the hospital of failing to "provide appropriate staffing" and adhering to proper protocols and policies.

"As a direct and proximate result of the negligence of all defendants," the complaint reads, "Campbell was not provided proper medical treatment within the requisite standard of care and suffered damages" including "physical injuries" and "her wrongful death."

The coroner's report for Campbell obtained by The Daily Record confirmed that her primary cause of death was the fractured hip received when she slipped off the bed.

It was the same hip that was replaced months earlier, according to the report.

The counter-argument: Campbell was already in failing health

Wooster Community Hospital's defense attorney contends Campbell was a woman in declining health who received therapy services within the standard of care.

Multiple medical professionals unaffiliated with the hospital will be called to testify as expert witnesses, according to court documents.

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They will use Campbell's medical record and the coroner's report, which lists a slew of pre-existing conditions, including congestive heart failure, hypothyroid, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension, to argue she was in failing health.

Court records filed in the case outline Campbell's medical history following her total hip replacement surgery in March 2018.

Her troubles began in May, according to one doctor who reviewed the case for the defense. She was admitted to the hospital multiple times that summer starting in early May when her left hip surgical site opened.

In late May, she returned to the hospital for pneumonia treatments and to address further hip replacement complications, according the records. She stayed until late June when she was discharged.

Nearly one month after discharge, Campbell returned to the emergency room on Aug. 28 for her surgical site infection and sepsis concerns, according to the doctor's account. There she was treated for pneumonia.

Two days later, Campbell "slipped from the bed to the floor while getting prepared for therapy. According to the defense expert, she was hypotensive and was re-admitted to the ER where a doctor determined there was "no fracture or dislocation."

"I believe Ms. Campbell had a chronic infection of her left total hip arthroplasty," the doctor wrote in his opinion. "Ms. Campbell's slip from the bed was likely the result of the development of a sepsis syndrome that more likely than not was related to persistence and reoccurrence of the infection of her hip arthroplasty."

Reach Bryce by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com

On Twitter: @Bryce_Buyakie

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Wayne County jury to hear 2018 wrongful death lawsuit against hospital