Patient taken off life support after he was mistaken for his hospital roommate, lawsuit claims

Family members are outraged after learning that their loved one was removed from life support at a Washington hospital – two years after he was killed in a medical mix-up.

Now, the heartbroken family is taking legal action to hold the hospital responsible for the alleged mistake.

The confusion started in 2021 when PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center staff wanted to understand whether the family of patient David Wells wanted to keep him on life support — but they called the family of the man sharing his hospital room instead, a December complaint filed in Clark County, Washington, alleged.

Wells became unconscious and stopped breathing on August 8, 2021, after choking on a piece of steak at dinner, according to the complaint obtained by the McClatchy News.

Debbie Danielson, the sister of Wells’ hospital roommate, Michael Beehler, received a call from the Vancouver, Washington hospital asking her to make a “life-or-death” decision, the complaint says.

“They said, ‘He’s basically brain dead,’” Danielson recalled to KGW. “’Do you want us to keep him on life support or do you want to pull the plug?’”

She made the “difficult choice” to remove him from life support, according to the complaint.

But it wasn’t Beeheler.

At the time, a death notice for Beehler ran in a local paper: “Michael A. Beehler, 60, Vancouver, died Aug. 9, 2021.”

But Danielson’s brother was not dead — an alarming discovery she made when she received a call from Beehler. “You can’t be alive. You’re dead!’” Danielson recalled telling her brother over the phone, KGW reported.

Beehler called Danielson and then both called the police, the complaint states.

“We made life-ending decisions for a person we don’t even know,” Danielson’s husband told KGW.

Days later, the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the body in the funeral home as belonging to Wells, not Beehler, the complaint says.The medical examiner’s office then notified Wells’ son, Shawn Wells.

“They basically told me there was a medical emergency regarding my father. He had been pronounced dead,” he told KGW. It wasn’t for another two years that he found out about the mixup — and that strangers had decided to end care for his father.

On August 26, the same local paper published a death notice for Wells.

“I’m at a loss for words how badly they handled this,” he told the outlet. “I’ll never be able to get that decision back.”

Now, Shawn Wells, Beehler and Danielson are suing the hospital for negligence and causing severe emotional distress.

In a statement to The Independent, a hospital spokesperson said: “PeaceHealth has worked diligently to strengthen our patient identification processes, which has included continued collaboration with multiple community agencies involved in healthcare, including EMS.”

Due to ongoing litigation, PeaceHealth said it couldn’t share more details about the matter. “Our unwavering commitment of caring for our community remains stronger than ever,” the statement continued.

In a separate lawsuit, the trio sued American Medical Response ambulance service, All County Cremation & Burial funeral home, and the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office in August, records show. The suit accuses the ambulance company of misidentifying the patient and accuses the funeral home and the medical examiner’s office of failing to “disclose the error” to Shawn, McClatchy News reported.

The filing also claims that the medical examiner’s office failed to inform Shawn that his father’s organs were “donated against his wishes.”

The Independent has reached out to lawyers representing the ambulance service, All County Cremation & Burial and the medical examiner’s office for comment.

Shawn told KGW that he’s never received an apology for the mixup: “It’s disturbing. I don’t know if I’m going to get over it. They dropped the ball so egregiously.”