A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the employer of the deceased's spouse and the hospital where he died, in the poisoning death of a man by his estranged wife. Besides the two entities, numerous health-care workers are named in wrongful death lawsuit including doctors who attended to him. The lawsuit states that negligence on the part of the defendants contributed to his death.

The man's estranged wife has been charged with murder. The couple met while students at the University of Pennsylvania, and were in the process of divorcing when the fatal poisoning occurred. The wife reportedly had a bad temper and had in the past threatened her husband, an ex-boyfriend and co-workers. Though the man initially left the family home when the two split, he returned to help take care of the couple's 2-year-old son.

In January of this past year, around the time the divorce was set to be finalized, the man went to the hospital complaining of numbness in his hands and feet and pain in his abdomen. Doctors did not initially believe his claims that his wife had poisoned him. After several days of being unable to determine the cause of the symptoms, a urine test was administered which indicated the man had in fact ingested Thallium.

Thallium is a drug that was once used as a rat poison. It has not been available to purchase by general consumers for over 30 years. The man's wife had access to the odorless and colorless poison through her job with one of the named defendants. According to authorities, company records indicate she signed out bottles of the poison.

After the urine test, his wife was allowed to continue to visit him in the hospital despite his insistence that she was continuing to poison him while he was there. Nine days after being admitted, the man became unresponsive and started foaming at the mouth. Three days later the man died. Just one day before his death a doctor had contacted New Jersey Poison Control.

The amount the family is seeking has not been disclosed.

Source

Philly.com: "Poisoning victim's family sues hospital, alleged source," Barbara Boyer, Aug. 4, 2011