Heparin overdose claim

Blood-thinner overdose
alleged in hospital death

By David Baker
Posted Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The widow of a man who died in Samaritan Hospital in Troy after he was allegedly given repeated overdoes of a blood thinner is suing a doctor and the hospital for his wrongful death.

According the legal papers, Joseph P. Bartoski was admitted to Samaritan Hospital on June 27, 2009 for repair of an abdominal hernia. During surgery the next day and in a recovery room later, a large amount of Heparin was administered to Bartoski, according to the suit. As a result, Bartoski suffered “a severe Heparin-induced coagulopathy, which resulted in a tremendous loss of his total blood volume due to persistent bleeding.”

Bartoski died the next day.

The suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages for severe personal injuries, conscious pain and suffering and death.

As well as the hospital, the suit names as defendants Dr. Ike A. Boka, Northeast Health Inc., and Empire Anesthesia Medical Consulting LLP.

The suit was filed on behalf of Dorothy M. Bartoski by Daniel A Santola of the Albany law firm Powers & Santola. Lawyers for the defendants are not identified in papers filed so far.

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Allegations missing from latest suits

Details of allegations in lawsuits are set out in a document known as a complaint. However, in two other lawsuits pending against Samaritan Hospital, the attorney for the plaintiff has chosen to instead file only a summons with notice. In both cases, the attorney is E. Stewart Jones.

It was in papers filed by Jones in an earlier lawsuit that details of the Alec Mackenzie case were found, including allegations that Mackenzie died in Samaritan Hospital under circumstances shockingly similar to those that allegedly preceded the death, six months earlier of Lisa Baker.

Papers filed in the Mackenzie case included not only a description of the alleged errors that led to his death but also full details of the settlement of the claim. Jones, in what appears to be an attempt to shield the people he is suing from bad publicity, is now keeping details of his cases against Samaritan Hospital from public view.

– David Baker

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