Another unreported death

Lawsuit over patient who died
after leaving a hospital settled

By David Baker
Posted Thursday, April 24, 2008

A lawsuit alleging that a hospital and a doctor discharged a patient while she was seriously ill and who died later the same day after she was brought back to the hospital has been settled.

The suit names Samaritan Hospital, Northeast Health Inc. and Dr. Sharon Bedford.

According to the suit, Sacora Grimes went to the emergency room at Samaritan Hospital in Troy on July 22, 2004 with acute confusion and an inability to answers questions.

She was admitted as a patient that day.

But two days later the suit says, she “was prematurely discharged from the defendant hospital, notwithstanding she was suffering from headaches, blurred vision and confusion.”

Later that day, according to the suit, “….Sarora Grimes was found to be suffering from seizure-like activity and was brought back to the defendant hospital, where she was pronounced dead.”

The suit alleges that the defendants “did not timely and properly diagnose and treat the plaintiff’s decedent and prematurely discharged her from the hospital, thereby resulting in her death.”

The complaint – the legal document that starts a lawsuit – does not state Grimes’ age and no obituary could be found in local newspapers.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate by Jesse Thornton. It is listed as being “settled” in June 2007 on the New York State Unified Court System web page.

Thornton was represented by Peter Moschetti Jr. of Anderson, Moschetti & Taffany in Latham. The defendants’ lawyers are listed as Thuillez, Ford, Gold, Butler & Young of Albany. A search of the archives of the area’s largest newspaper, the Times Union, produced no indication that this claim was reported by the paper.

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Information for this item was gathered during research for a new Web page that will report lawsuits filed against Capital Region medical providers. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are encouraged to e-mail details of such claims to answersforlisa@hotmail.com Confidentiality will be maintained

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