Health Care & Hospital Law
Jun. 18, 2002
Heirs Sue Kaiser and Sheriff
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal lawsuit accuses the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department of conspiring with the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Antioch to cover up a malpractice death in order to protect a lucrative business relationship between a medical examiner and the hospital.
Filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, the suit claims that agents of the sheriff's department, which doubles as the coroner's office, and Kaiser "conspired to create the opportunity for Kaiser to destroy or dispose of evidence of the circumstances" surrounding the death of a man who died the morning after being admitted to the hospital with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Behind the alleged conspiracy were contracts between Kaiser and a company that Contra Costa County employed to perform autopsies. Miller v. Rupf, C02-2831VRW.
William Campisi Jr., the Berkeley attorney for the daughters of Mark Miller, who died in his hospital bed in June 2001, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Kaiser spokesman Randy Wittorp would not comment beyond saying that the hospital is "confident in the care the patient was given, and we fully cooperated with the coroner's office."
According to the suit, Miller, 41, was admitted to the Antioch facility at Kaiser Permanente after rupturing his Achilles tendon while playing tennis. A nurse administered two or three morphine injections and Miller was outfitted with a pump that allowed him to self-medicate.
He was to have surgery the following morning, but was discovered dead in his bed at approximately 6:30 a.m.
According to the suit, Miller showed signs of respiratory failure and pinpoint pupils - symptoms typical of a morphine overdose - but the attending physician failed to disclose to the sheriff's office that Miller had received morphine.
The doctor and a deputy sheriff, who is also an investigator in the coroner's office, concluded that Miller died from a heart ailment related to his history of hypertension. The deputy decided the death was not within his office's jurisdiction.
That decision, the suit claims, allowed Kaiser to destroy evidence relating to Miller's death, including a cardiac monitor recording that showed Miller's heart was functioning normally.
It was only after Miller's doctor phoned the deputy and informed him that Miller had received morphine that an autopsy was performed.
The procedure was carried out by Dr. Brian Peterson, a pathologist with Forensic Medical Group Inc. who was hired to perform autopsies for Contra Costa County.
The suit claims Peterson ignored all the evidence of a morphine overdose and drew conclusions about Miller's heart condition without examining the organ itself, which had already been removed for donation.
The suit alleges that Forensic Medical Group had contracts with Kaiser to perform autopsies and to teach Kaiser physicians about internal medicine, and that Peterson's results "were not based on any medical judgment, but were based entirely upon a desire to protect his economic relationship with Kaiser by protecting Kaiser from a potential civil action."
The suit accuses the sheriff's department, Kaiser and Forensic Medical Group of violating Miller's civil rights, depriving his heirs of the opportunity to file a wrongful death suit, and engaging in unfair business practices in violation of the state's Business and Professions Code.
It charges Sheriff Warren Rupf and his deputy with negligence for not conducting a proper investigation, and Peterson with fraud for "intentionally misstating" the cause of Miller's death.
Rupf and Peterson did not return calls Friday seeking comment.
Matthew King
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