Kaiser Let Sedated Patient Drive, Grieving Mother Claims
12-12-2013 21:13:00
FRESNO, Calif. (CN) - A young girl died because a
prematurely-discharged surgical patient drove her SUV across the double yellow
lines, causing a head-on collision, the girl’s mother claims in a lawsuit filed
in Fresno County Superior Court.
Individually and as successor-in-interest to decedent
Jayla Sanchez, Desiree Abarca sued Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., The
Permanente Medical Group Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Linda Sue
Fairbanks.
According to the 13-page complaint, Fairbanks had surgery
at a Kaiser hospital, where she “was administered two powerful and significantly
mind-altering drugs known as Oxycontin and Dilaudid, known to render a person
heavily intoxicated and unable to make sound decisions or responsibly conduct
themselves, including but not limited to, the ability to safely control and
navigate a vehicle,” and then sent her home the same
day.
Abarca alleges Kaiser did not fulfill its duty to keep
Fairbanks at the hospital or make sure someone else was available to drive her
home. Instead, she says, Fairbanks was allowed to drive, and went southbound on the State Route 43, where Jayla’s father, Jorge Perez, Jr., was driving northbound, with Jayla in the car.
“As a result of the level of intoxication, defendant
Linda Sue Fairbanks traveled across the solid double yellow lines and entered
the northbound lane of State Route 43, thereby colliding head-on with the
vehicle that decedent Jayla Sanchez was a passenger in, resulting in fatal
injuries to decedent Jayla Sanchez . . . Decedent Jayla Sanchez initially
survived the collision, with severe and catastrophic injuries, but subsequently
succumbed to her injuries and died at the age of four,” the
complaint states.
Plaintiff seeks economic and non-economic damages, costs
of suit and interest. She is represented by Joseph M. Barrett and Ibiere N. Seck
of The Cochran Firm in Los Angeles and Benjamin P. Tyrk of Fresno, as
co-counsel.