People throughout the Pittsburgh area assume that when a loved one is a patient at a hospital he or she will be kept safe during their stay. Two Pennsylvania sisters learned that isn't always the case after their 88-year-old father died while staying at a hospital. At the time of his death he was recovering from heart surgery and a condition suspected to be sepsis. The man reportedly died when he became trapped in a bed. He was asphyxiated.

The women sued the Pennsylvania hospital as well as the maker of the bed, Kinetic Concepts. In their lawsuit they allege that the hospital failed to properly monitor their father either in person or via an alarm. They claimed that the bed itself was defective. After the man died, another individual was also found stuck between the bed's rail and its mattress. That patient was rescued however and survived the incident.

The bed which was involved in both of the incidents, was a rental, and designed to keep bed sores at bay. Accordingly, its mattress was pressure sensitive. Beds of this sort were only supposed to be ordered for patients who after an evaluation were deemed to have certain conditions. Individuals working with patients utilizing the beds were all supposed to receive training on how to use them. Part of that training involved determining whether special accommodations had to be made such as positioning pillows in a certain way. After the second patient was found in distress, the hospital discontinued using the beds.

The amount the women are seeking for the hospital negligence claim is not known. While it will do nothing to bring their father back, it may ensure that other patients at the hospital receive a higher level of care.

Source: The Morning Call, "Daughters of patient who died at LVH file lawsuit," Kevin Amerman, March 21, 2013