Mother Lawsuit: A 23 years old who dies in ED area after Conn. hospital ignores him for 7 hours

William Miller, 23, died in May 2021. “We have offered our sincere apologies to the family of the patient and are working towards a resolution,” the Yale New Haven Hospital said.

The mother of a 23-year-old man who died at a hospital in Connecticut last year has filed a lawsuit against the facility, alleging that his death was due to workers’ negligence after he was left unattended for hours.

According to the lawsuit, William Miller died after being left alone in an ambulance bay at the Yale New Haven Hospital on a stretcher and “ignored by … medical staff for a period of seven hours.”

He had been taken to the hospital on the evening of May 10, 2021, after ingesting a white powder he suspected “had been laced with fentanyl,” the lawsuit said.

An ambulance had responded to a call from the Peter’s Rock Association Park in East Haven at around 6:25 p.m. that day, the lawsuit said. Upon arrival, ambulance personnel found that Miller was already being treated by firefighters from the East Haven Fire Department, who administered 3 milligrams of naloxone, partially by nasal spray, to halt the fentanyl toxicity, it said.

At that time, the lawsuit said Miller was “walking, talking and alert.”

Ambulance personnel determined that he was stable with a normal respiratory rate, but took him to Yale New Haven’s emergency department for medical monitoring to prevent toxicity recurrence, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Miller had communicated with his mother, Tina Darnsteadt, telling her he was in the ambulance “and feeling ok.”

He arrived at Yale New Haven at around 7:13 p.m. “without incident or difficulty,” the lawsuit said, and was placed on a stretcher positioned in the ambulance bay of the emergency department.

Miller was triaged by a nurse at around 7:15 p.m. while in the ambulance bay, with medical records noting he was suffering from likely fentanyl toxicity.

While his vital signs were normal, Miller was designated a “Level 2” patient under the Emergency Severity Index, a 5-level triage gauge ranging from 1, most urgent, to 5, least urgent, due to the “well-known risk of toxicity recurrence in cases involving the unintentional ingestion of Fentanyl,” the lawsuit said.

After the triage was listed as completed, Miller’s medical record fell “silent” for seven hours, the lawsuit said. “Mr. Miller received no medical attention whatsoever for this seven-hour period,” it stated.

Surveillance showed Miller getting up from his stretcher to use the bathroom, as well as to grab a snack from the vending machine, according to the lawsuit. It also shows him talking on a cellphone, with the lawsuit saying he was talking to his mother, who “believed he was safe at the hospital.”