Kaiser Stalls Out on 82-Year-Old With Fractured Neck, She Claims
5-23-2013 13:33:00


RIVERSIDE, Calif. (CN) - Kaiser did not honor its own arbitration agreement when an elderly woman fell off a gurney fracturing her neck, she claims in Riverside County Superior Court.

     Helen Hargrave sued Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern Permanente Medical Group for negligence, premises liability, vicarious liability/respondeat superior, negligent hiring, supervision, retention and training, medical malpractice, fraudulent inducement, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, breach of ficuciary duty, elder abuse, medical battery, lack of informed consent and business and professions code violations.
     According to her lawsuit, Hargrave, 80 at the time, was lying on a gurney at Kaiser “in an ill, feeble and medicated state,” when the rail collapsed and she fell, injuring her hip and fracturing her neck. She needed surgery as a result, she claims.
     Because Hargrave had signed an arbitration agreement, she began the steps to pursue that avenue of recourse, according to the complaint.
     “Plaintiff signed the agreement in good faith and reasonable assurance that the Kaiser defendants would honor the arbitration agreement and treat her fair and reasonably if she was mistreated, misdiagnosed or injured during her medical procedure,” the complaint states.
     But, Kaiser has engaged in “dilatory tactics in not honoring the arbitration agreement, by not providing a timely list of arbitrators or moving towards the timely expeditious process towards an arbitration hearing,” Hargrave contends.
     Helen Hargrave seeks general, special and punitive damages, medical and related expenses, interest and costs of suit. She is respresented by Albert E. Hirst, III of San Bernardino.
RIC1412360