BELLEVILLE — The widow of an area music industry veteran is suing a Belleville hospital and physician for allegedly failing to diagnose the Legionnaires' disease that contributed to the death of her husband earlier this year.
In her five-page lawsuit filed July 1 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, plaintiff Kathleen Lee, special administrator of the estate of her husband Robert Lee, accuses Protestant Memorial Medical Center and physician Dirk Randal De Haas of negligence and wrongful death. Lee's four-count complaint alleges wrongdoing under the Illinois Wrongful Death Statute and the Illinois Survival Statute.
Robert Lee of Caseyville was 64, a musician, and senior vice president of sales at St. Louis Music when he died Jan. 21. He died about 11 days after arriving at the emergency room at Protestant Memorial, according to the lawsuit.
Protestant Memorial Medical Center, which does business as the nonprofit Memorial Hospital in Bellevue, did not respond to the Record's requests for comment.
Kathleen Lee claims De Haas "negligently and carelessly" failed to order a chest x-ray, blood work, swab for influenza A and B, diagnose pneumonia, start antibiotics and discharged Robert Lee "with instructions to simply continue taking over-the-counter medications," the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff alleges De Haas knew or should have known that the over-the-counter medications "were not working, their efficacy being why he presented to the emergency room in the first place."
Lee's medical conditions - pneumonia and Legionnaires' disease - allegedly "went undiagnosed until it was too late, and following significant complications" and he died at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, according to the lawsuit and his obituary.
Legionnaires' disease is a rare and severe form of pneumonia that doesn't spread person to person but exposure to the bacteria legionella bacteria carried through mist, such as from air conditioning in large buildings, according to information on the Mayo Clinic's website. Symptoms include cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath, muscle aches, headaches, and diarrhea.
Legionnaires' disease is so named based on its first recognized outbreak during an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in July 1976. At least 103 people became ill and 10 died during that first outbreak. About 6,000 new cases of Legionnaires' disease are reported each year but the actual number of cases probably is higher in part due to difficulty in distinguishing Legionnaires’ disease from other types of pneumonia, according to information from the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"Decedent's next of kin have been permanently deprived of her [sic], companionship, society, support, and they have incurred and become liable for large sums of money in hospital, medical and related expenses, all to their damage in a substantial amount," the lawsuit states.
Before he died, Robert Lee suffered complications that included "permanent pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, incurred medical bills up until the time of his death, and was permanently prevented from attending to his usual affairs and duties up to the time of his death, all to his damage in a substantial amount," the suit states.
Kathleen Lee seeks a judgment in an amount greater than $75,000 in each of the four counts against Haas and the hospital.
The lawsuit was filed on Kathleen Lee's behalf by attorney Thomas Q. Keefe III of Keefe Keefe & Unsell in Belleville.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 19-L-473