Man, 23, died after being left unattended for 7 hours in hospital, lawsuit claims

The man's mother claims that her son was left in an ambulance bay for seven hours and medical staff didn't notice him going into cardiac arrest.

The mother of a 23-year-old man who died at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut last year has filed a lawsuit against the facility for allegedly leaving her son in an ambulance bay untreated for multiple hours.

William (Billy) Miller died in May 2021 after he was taken to the hospital for drug toxicity monitoring. His mother, Tina Darnsteadt, claims that hospital staff left him alone for more than seven hours and didn’t notice when he went into cardiac arrest.

“They untreated him to death,” Tina Darnsteadt told The Connecticut Post.

The family’s lawyer, Sean McElligott, said via The Connecticut Post that “this young man’s death was completely avoidable.”

“The hospital failed to provide him with the most basic medical care. This should never happen,” McElligott said. “Billy’s death was tragic and his family and loved ones are devastated by the utter lack of care provided at the hospital. I will work hard to make sure nothing like this happens to another family.”

According to the lawsuit, on May 10, 2021, Miller ingested a white powder that he suspected “had been laced with fentanyl,” while at a gathering with friends at the Peter’s Rock Association Park in East Haven.

An ambulance responded to an emergency call at approximately 6:25 p.m. that evening and found Miller already being treated by firefighters, who administered three milligrams of naloxone to halt fentanyl toxicity. At the time the ambulance arrived, Miller was “walking, talking and alert,” the lawsuit reads.

He was transported to the Yale-New Haven Hospital emergency department for monitoring to prevent toxicity recurrence. While en route, Miller called his mother and explained what happened. He said he was feeling OK, the suit reads.