In June of 2022, attorney Benjamin Gideon of Gideon Asen filed a complaint against St. Joseph Hospital on behalf of Dawn Quimby as Personal Representative of the Estate of her husband, Jeffrey Quimby. Ms. Quimby alleges that the hospital’s negligence directly caused a car crash that resulted in her husband Jeffrey’s quadriplegia and subsequent death approximately a year and a half later.

In September of 2020, Quimby visited the hospital to treat his symptoms of opioid withdrawal. He had stopped using Tramadol for his chronic back issues, and was experiencing nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, and shakiness. Several of the medications he was administered in the hospital and given to take home with him when he left the hospital are known to cause sedation, making it dangerous to drive.

The prescribing physician and nurse did not warn Jeffrey of this side effect or advise him to refrain from taking the “to-go” medications before driving home.  Jeffrey took one of the pills prescribed for nausea, drove away from the hospital fell asleep behind the wheel while driving home. His car drifted off the road and utility pole, paralyzing him from the neck down.

Quimby’s lawsuit alleges that the hospital should have advised him of the risks and side effects of the medications they administered to him while he was in the hospital, as well as the pills they handed him to take home with him when he left.  Jeffrey lived only about 20 minutes from the hospital and would have refrained from taking the nausea medication until he got home had he been advised to do so.

Jeffrey lived for approximately a year and a half with the catastrophic injuries suffered in the crash.  He ultimately succumbed to his injuries, and his claim is now being prosecuted in the name of his surviving spouse, Dawn Quimby.

Contact our firm today if you believe that the negligence of a healthcare provider has caused your harm.