Oxygen not hooked up, wrongful death suit claims

Abbott Services Ambulance is being sued by a woman whose husband died while being transported from St. John's Mercy Hospital in St. Louis to their Red Bud home in June.

Marie Stolte claims her husband Ronald Stolte was deprived oxygen because his oxygen line was hooked into an inoperative tank.

According to the suit filed Sept. 20 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, the crew member attending to Ronald Stolte communicated to the driver that the patient had no vitals. The driver pulled over and determined that Stolte had died.

"That after it was determined that Ronald Stolte had died, plaintiff Marie Stolte, told the attendant in back that although the oxygen was on, Ronald Stolte was not getting any oxygen," the complaint states.

Stolte, represented by Thomas Q. Keefe of Belleville, also names the crew members, G. Given and Klynn Graf, as defendants. The 12-count suit seeks damages in excess of $900,000 for willful and wanton conduct, survival action, wrongful death and negligence.

The suit claims the defendants willfully and wantonly failed to administer care to Stolte by "improperly connecting plaintiff's nasal canula to an inoperative oxygen tank."

"That as a direct and proximate result of one or more of the foregoing wilful and wanton acts of misconduct on the part of the defendant as aforesaid, plaintiff's decedent, Ronald Stolte, received improper care and treatment while en route from the hospital to his home, and in consequence died on June 14, 2006," the complaint states.