CLEARWATER — A Pinellas County widow is suing medical providers, alleging negligence and vicarious liability.
Waffa Z. Wahab, as personal representative for the estate of Razi HJ. Wahab, filed a complaint Oct. 17 in Pinellas County Circuit Court against Galencare Inc., doing business as Northside Hospital, Dr. Albert H. Li, and Pinellas Surgical Associates Inc., alleging they breached professional standards of care and treatment in causing the death of her husband.
According to the complaint, on May 3, 2016, the decedent, Razi H. Wahab, came to Northside Hospital's emergency room with a seven-day history of constipation. The suit alleges the defendants negligently failed to adequately diagnose, treat, monitor and care for Wahab, leading him to suffer renal failure and acute kidney injury, metabolic acidosis secondary to lactic acidosis and acute kidney injury, acute respiratory failure, aspiration pneumonia, necrotic bowel, and septic shock, prior to his wrongful death May 9, 2016.
Moreover, the suit says, Waffa Wahab suffered the loss of her husband’s companionship, instruction, guidance, support and services, and experienced mental pain and suffering.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to timely diagnose and appropriately treat a patient, failed to fully and accurately recognize and assess a patient's confusion as a concerning sign of clinical deterioration, and failed to assess and work up the underlying causes of the patient's postoperative abdominal pain and distention.
Waffa Wahab seeks trial by jury, judgment exceeding $15,000, exclusive of court costs, plus attorney fees. She is represented by attorney Christa M. Carpenter of The Patient’s Law Firm PA in Palm Harbor.
Pinellas County Circuit Court case number 18-C-6843