Government settles suit over wrongful death at VA's Haley

Government settles suit over wrongful death at VA's Haley
By Thomas Lake, Times Staff Writer
Published Monday, April 7, 2008 10:07 PM


TAMPA — Pancreatitis did not kill Hugh Morris. Nor did nausea, vomiting or the bacterial infection that put him in the hospital. What killed Morris was too much medicine: a dose 60 times larger than what the doctor prescribed.

This fact is undisputed. Dr. Edward Cutolo Jr., then the acting chief of staff at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, admitted as much in a letter dated July 6, 2006, about two months after Morris died.

"Although Mr. Morris was gravely ill," he wrote, "we feel the incorrect dosage was responsible for his death."

The federal government filed court documents Friday stating it had settled a wrongful-death suit with Morris' widow, Elizabeth. Neither side would say how much money changed hands.

"I will say it was not a lot of money," Elizabeth Morris said Monday in her living room, as the smell of baked steak with brown gravy floated in from the kitchen. This was one of her husband's favorite dinners. They were married 62 years.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicine/article447121.ece