Family accuses local coroner of allowing organ donation at the expense of finding out why a teenager died

Screenshot of closeup of blond teen from tv news report on investigation into teen's death.

Her headstone at Cemetery Ridge Memorial Park is in Amherst.

More than four years after the blonde, outgoing, 17 year old died in her bedroom, inside her family’s Amherst home.

Her mother Jennifer still doesn’t have the answer to the most basic question.

“It’s a struggle, I still feel I need to know why,” said Jennifer Stewart.

Stewart doesn’t know how and why her daughter died because before a full and complete autopsy was done, the teenager’s heart and other organs and tissue were removed for donation.

That is despite police classifying Vanessa’s death as “suspicious” from the start.

Just minutes after talking to her daughter, Stewart arrived home, called out her name and heard nothing.

“So, I went to her room. And that’s where I discovered her. I was the last person she spoke with. She must have passed away immediately after our phone conversation,” Stewart told 19 News.

Within hours, Vanessa’s distraught mother was dealing with a dizzying string of phone calls.

Starting with Lifebanc, the Cleveland based organ and tissue recovery organization, and from the Lorain County Coroner’s office.

“He said he would do a full autopsy,” Stewart said.

In a recorded conversation obtained by 19 News, Dr. Frank Miller, Lorain County’s Chief Deputy Coroner seemingly outsources his job to Lifebanc.

“Take lots of pictures. You probably could even have the heart,”

“I need the chest plate removed autopsy style. Not your way,” Dr. Miller told a Lifebanc donation coordinator.

The donation coordinator reminded Miller, at the moment Vanessa’s death it was undetermined and suspicious.

“Do you want to restrict that? I don’t want to interfere with anything that you got going on,” the donation coordinator said.

“I’m going to autopsy her following donation,” Lorain County Chief Deputy Coroner Frank Miller said.

The Lifebanc representative goes on to say, “Okay. And with that being, I don’t know, there is a rumor, you know, yeah, an unusual case,”

“Yeah, it’s basically, it’s either a natural or suicidal overdose, okay,” Miller replied. “Not a big deal.”

“Oh, okay okay. The hospital was making it sound like, like, like it was a possible homicide then,” the donor coordinator said.

“Oh, no no no. It’s a suicidal overdose versus natural causes,” said Miller.

A conclusion?

Dr. Miller, at that moment, hadn’t examined Vanessa’s body himself, or found out whether there were drugs in her system.

It was Lifebanc that recorded the conversation and turned it over to attorneys for Jennifer Stewart, Vanessa’s mother, who is now suing the coroner’s office.

Some believe the coroner thought once we got the toxicology back and we determined she overdosed the autopsy wouldn’t be necessary.

“Well, what happened is the toxicology report came back completely negative,” said attorney Roni Sokol.

That’s right. there were no drugs in Vanessa’s system, but because her heart was removed, and dissected so her valves could be donated, there was no way to determine whether she had a previously unknown heart defect.

“And the coroner was left with no cause of death and no way to determine it,” Sokol said.

19 News wanted to talk to Dr. Miller, but he referred us to his attorney who said he’d get back to us and never did despite repeated calls for comment.

19 News discovered other similar cases around the country where the rush to donate lifesaving organs sometimes interfered with investigating suspicious deaths.

Example: an Arizona man who died after a night of drinking, drugging, and a fight.

Was it murder? A fatal drug and alcohol binge, or heart attack?

The local sheriff said detectives were “shocked” after learning the man’s heart and other organs were removed and given to a donor network before a cause of death was determined.

The sheriff said, “We’re just going to be shooting in the dark.”

“I think we are struggling with this,” said Sharona Hoffman, a bio-ethics professor at Case Western Reserve Law School.

“It’s very hard to determine the line. Do they want to make the death meaningful as some would say by donating organs or are they more interested in finding out what happened,” said Hoffman.

As for Lifebanc, the organization told 19 News if there’s a problem, it’s not with them.

“The coroner may say we have to restrict this because we need certain information in order to determine a cause of death or obtain specific information and we respect that,” says Heather Mekesa Lifebanc’s Chief Clinical Officer.

There’s no doubt, organ donation saves lives.

Lifebanc said 113,000 people are waiting for transplants nationwide, 1,500 in Northeast Ohio right now.

Theresa Smith, a mother of three, was one of those people.

“My first memory is that I was so glad I was opening my eyes. I remember crying and trying to say thank you,” Smith said.

Smith went into liver failure after coming down with the flu.

She received a liver transplant after the death of a young man in his 30’s.

“When I wrote the family part of what I put in there. I’m a mother. I’m a wife. I’m a daughter. I’m a sister. I’m a niece. I’m a friend. I’m a granddaughter. I’m all of those things. And I get to continue to do those things because the most special part of me is him now,” Smith wrote.

But Jennifer Stewart feels she was pressured by Lifebanc, its repeated phone calls in her moment of grief and deceived by the coroner who promised donating Venessa’s organs wouldn’t interfere with finding out what caused her death.

“I never got to grieve,” Stewart said. “I wouldn’t want to wish this on anybody.”

Dr. Miller wouldn’t talk to Cleveland 19, but he did write this protocol for organ donations in 2008 while working in the Cuyahoga Coroner’s office.

Among other things, Dr. Miller wrote it is in the interest of the coroner’s office to never deny requests for organs and tissues regardless whether it’s a homicide, suicide, or suspicious death.


View original article here >

By Alan Cohn | May 2, 2019 at 11:08 PM EDT – Updated May 5 at 8:46 AM
CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) – Today, Vanessa Webb’s beauty is etched into stone.

Copyright 2019 WOIO. All rights reserved.

 

Sokol Law settles another funeral home negligence case

My client’s mom died unexpectedly in a car crash. What a funeral home did next was unlawful – and their negligence caused emotional distress.  

The crash victim had not set up any funeral arrangements to be followed in the event of her death. Her adult sons called various funeral homes to get estimates for the costs of a funeral. One of the several funeral homes they called went and picked up her body from the county coroner without her family’s permission or consent.  After picking up the body, the funeral home then had the body embalmed, also without authority or consent.

Under Ohio law, funeral homes are required to have consent before picking up a deceased body, and are required to get written consent before embalming.  Neither of these things were done in this case.

The funeral home admitted the mistake, but contended that our clients were not damaged in any way, because they got a “free” pick up and embalming. We argued that our clients were not only denied their choice of funeral home, they also suffered great emotional distress upon learning that their mother had been picked up and taken away unlawfully.  In addition, we argued that the funeral home had fraudulently advised the coroner that they had been given authority to pick up the body.

The case was settled short of litigation.  The amount and terms of the settlement are confidential.

Organs donated prior to autopsy; Sokol files suit on behalf of family of the deceased

When 17-year-old Vanessa Webb died unexpectedly, some of her organs were donated to Lifebanc, before the Lorain, Ohio coroner performed an autopsy to determine the cause of the young woman’s unexpected death. Naturally, her family was distraught.

Vanessa’s mother, Jennifer Stewart, told WKYC Investigator Tom Meyer she believes the coroner had wrongly presumed that her daughter died of a drug overdose. Police had ruled out suicide or foul play. “My wishes were to find out a cause of death, and now, because of them pushing to have an organ donation, rather than an autopsy, I may never have closure,” she said.

Now 10 months since Vanessa’s death, the investigation remains open. “I think they’re buying time. I think they (the coroner) will never determine the cause of death,” said Roni Sokol, one of the attorneys who are representing the family. Sokol says a lawsuit is being prepared. “Under Ohio law, they’re not supposed to release the body to anyone until a cause of death has been determined,” she reports.

Read the complete story here.

The Sokol Law Firm settles hospital negligence case

Proving a hospital negligence case can be complicated. In this case, our client was a 12 year old boy who, with his family, was visiting a relative in the hospital. While in the waiting area, our client and his cousin wandered away from their mothers and, while walking down a hallway, were stopped by a nurse who asked them if there was an adult with them.  The nurse was holding a tray of supplies. While they were talking, the nurse somehow punctured the boy in the back of his hand with a hypodermic needle.  The boy immediately saw blood and ran to his mother.

The boy received immediate treatment, including being tested for various diseases.  The tests all came back negative.

Upon reviewing the videotape, it was clear that the nurse had engaged in conversation with the boys, and that she was holding a tray of supplies.  It was unclear what exactly caused his wound.

The hospital contended that he was scratched by the edge of the tray, and if he had been stabbed by the needle,  the cap was on it.  They argued that even if the cap was off the needle, it was clean, as all used needles are immediately disposed of.  The nurse was prepared to testify that the cap was on at all times and if anything had stabbed the boy, it was the cap on the needle.  Our client was prepared to testify that he was indeed stabbed by a needle.

Fortunately, we were were able to settle this hospital negligence case; the terms are confidential.

Sokol Law settles food poisoning case against restaurant

My client became violently ill after consuming mussels at a well-known chain restaurant.  She spent several days in the hospital, where she was diagnosed with dehydration and renal failure. The insurance company for the restaurant disputed the claim on the basis that lab results did not show evidence of E. Coli, salmonella, or any other bacteria that could have caused the food poisoning.  We argued that something in the food clearly made her sick, as she had eaten nothing else that day.  Also, she had complained to her waiter that the mussels didn’t taste right and had sent them back.  Fortunately, we were able to settle the matter without court intervention.

Sokol Law Firm settles case of cremated remains left in garbage dumpster

In November of 2013, the widow of Eric Wiley found out from a Channel 8 news report that her late husband’s cremated remains had been found in an Akron area dumpster – three years after his death.  Upon investigation, it was revealed that, instead of burying the cremated remains, the funeral director had left them in a storage unit, where they sat for years.  After not paying his bill to the storage facility, the contents of his unit (including the cremains of Mr. Wiley) were thrown into a dumpster where they were later discovered by a “dumpster diver.”

The Sokol Law Firm was hired to represent the family in their claim against the funeral director.  Today, a year and a half later, we obtained a settlement for our clients.  In addition, their beloved husband and father is now buried in his proper final resting place.  It was a long road, and we are thrilled to be able to offer our clients closure in this matter.

See the original FOX 8 news story here.

Sokol Law Firm settles unusual "slip and fall" case

My client was an 81 year old resident of an apartment building that housed senior citizens.  She was seriously injured when she stepped into the building’s laundry room after the floor had been treated with glue or some other type of strong adhesive in preparation for replacing the floor.

When our client stepped into the laundry room, she became stuck to the floor and fell (first backwards and then upon getting herself up again, forwards). She struggled for approximately 45 minutes to get out of that laundry room without help.  She sustained a broken wrist, among other injuries.

We argued that our client had no warning of the dangerous condition of the floor in the laundry room before entering, as there were no signs or tape warning that the floors were being redone.  Moreover, the condition of the floor was not open and obvious because she got stuck upon her first step in. Both the carrier for the apartment building and for the contractor denied the claim.

We filed suit, and in depositions, elicited testimony that the contractor had been instructed to put caution tape all around the area, but had not done so. Based in large part upon this deposition testimony, we were able to settle the case for a confidential amount.

 

 

Sokol Law Firm settles wrongful death case prior to filing suit

Our client was the daughter of an elderly woman who was wheelchair bound.  She had retained the services of an in-home nursing care facility to provide day care services for her mother.  To that end, a home healthcare provider was to go to  her mother’s apartment every day, five days a week, and provide health care services for her for the entire day.

On one of that provider’s visits to the mother’s apartment, the provider knocked and/or rang the bell, but no one answered.  The provider then left.  This happened again the next day, the day after that, and the day after that.  The health care provider did not tell anyone that no one was answering the door.  Finally, on day five, the healthcare provider advised her supervisor that no one had been answering the door for the past five days.

The manager of the building was notified. Once they entered the home, they discovered our client’s mother lying on the floor in a puddle of urine.  She had suffered a stroke and was barely conscious.  She spent several months in the hospital where she suffered a heart attack, a loss of her leg, and numerous other ailments.  She ended up passing away from her injuries.

The client came to us a year and a half after her mother’s death.  Therefore, we were unable to pursue a survival claim on her mother’s behalf (Ohio statute is 1 year).  We were left with only the wrongful death action (Ohio statute is 2 years).  We argued that the nursing facility was liable for the death of our client’s mother, as it had a contractual duty to provide her daily care and the failure to do so resulted in her untimely death.

We were able to settle the case in the six figure range six months after making the claim.