Family sues Beaumont after mom dies, says medical staff didn't monitor her appropriately

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A woman is suing Beaumont Health System and says they're to blame for her mother's death four years ago.

Cynthia Nelson filed a lawsuit against Beaumont Health, claiming that her mother was not properly monitored as she was being treated - which ultimately led to her death. Nelson told FOX 2's Randy Wimbley, the hospital's lack of care is the reason her mother died.

"We thought we put my mom in good care that the nurses and doctors would do what they’re supposed to do," Nelson said.

In October 2018, her mother, Edith Grimes, was taken to Beaumont for respiratory distress and required dialysis for renal disease. She was undergoing the procedure at her bedside in a monitored unit until a doctor decided to move her to another floor for it. He did not include a note that nurses keep any eye on her considering she was a hi-risk airway patient and had tracheostomy tube placed on her neck.

"What ultimately happens is that her trach(eotomy) is moved, she suffers a lack of oxygen and she goes brain dead and she ultimately passes away," family attorney Dionne Webster-Cox said.

Nelson said her mother was left unattended for several minutes before nurses found her unable to breathe.

"The neurologist in ICU - he told us that the brain damage she suffered, (she was) over 95%  brain-dead. She went in there with no brain damage and to come back to be almost pure brain-dead, he said she had to be without oxygen for over 30 minutes or more," Nelson said.

Grimes was in the care of registered nurse Dana McClair who said in a deposition that she checked on the 63-year-old every 2-3 minutes, but conceded there was no evidence she did so. She also acknowledged that more monitoring could have been done at her discretion considering the severity of Grimes’ condition.

"I'm a registered nurse of 26 years and it is absolutely unheard of to leave a patient as such as my mother Edith Grimes unattended, unsupervised for that long while receiving hemodialysis," Nelson said.

We reached out to Beaumont for comment on the lawsuit. The company issued this statement:

"The safety of our patients is our top priority. We are always deeply saddened when a patient loses their life. Patient privacy laws prohibit us from commenting about a particular patient’s care."

A trial date is set for April 2023.

The family of Edith Grimes says the staff at Beaumont Royal Oak did not pay enough attention to their mother when she was hospitalized more than three years ago - which led to her death.