The wife of an illegal immigrant who died after receiving care in a Jackson hospital is suing, saying the local doctors gave the man subpar treatment because he wasn’t a citizen, and it led to him contracting fatal flesh-eating gangrene.
Silvia Ruth Perez, also known as Silvia Ruth Sahino Cano, filed a lawsuit Friday against Jackson-based St. John’s Health in the federal U.S. District Court for Wyoming on behalf of her late husband, 47-year-old Ociel Ponce Perez. She also is suing the hospital’s General Surgery Clinic, its contract company Jackson Hole Medical Imaging and doctors David Bigelow, Tobin Dennis and Eric Wieman.
Ociel Perez was a carpenter in Jackson, who moved to the area in 1999, the complaint says. He was also an undocumented resident, but “paid taxes on the money he made from his strenuous and productive labors,” the document says.
He arrived at the St. John’s urgent care clinic the morning of July 30, 2022, with severe pain in his lower trunk area, the complaint says. He had a medical history of diabetes and hemorrhoids.
In the exam room, he dropped to his hands and knees with pain. He said he’d had pain, bleeding and insomnia for a week, but had no fevers or chills, the document says.
The first doctor who saw him noticed an abscess and sent him to the emergency department to learn the scope of it.
The complaint alleges that medical personnel learned of Perez’s “undocumented” status and his lack of insurance and Medicaid coverage while he was at the emergency department.
Perez was then sent to radiology, where a CT scan demonstrated distension in some of his lower digestive organs, the document says. He also had signs of an abscess.
The complaint says Bigelow under-diagnosed the abscess as a shallower pocket than what it was, and “totally ignored” signs of gangrene.
The complaint asks for a jury trial and monetary damages to compensate for Perez’s pain and suffering, loss of future earning capacity, survival damages, funeral and burial expenses, medical expenses, attorney fees, loss of enjoyment of life and all wrongful death damages allowed by Wyoming law.
Bigelow declined Wednesday to comment to Cowboy State Daily, and said he was sorry he could not speak to the matter.
St. John’s Health gave a brief comment regarding the case as a whole.
“We’re aware of the filing and we’re responding appropriately,” Karen Connolly, the hospital’s spokeswoman, told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday voicemail.
Bedside Incision
The complaint says Wieman correctly diagnosed Perez’s abscess as a deeper injury and recommended a shallow incision and drainage at Perez’s emergency-room bedside.
Perez’s diabetes put him at a greater risk of flesh-eating soft tissue infections if his abscess wasn’t properly treated, the document says. It alleges that Wieman recommended a “quicker, cheaper incision and drainage” than Perez needed.
Perez was discharged that day with prescriptions for antibiotics and opioids and hygiene procedure instructions written in English, his second language, the document says.
Wieman could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Five Days Later
Still pain-wracked, Perez went to a doctor’s clinic in Jackson five days later. The doctor sent him directly to the St. John’s Health emergency department, noting redness and inflammation on Perez’ incision site, the complaint says.
By then Perez reportedly had fever, chills, malaise and weakness, along with certain digestive difficulties.
His glucose level was 534, indicating severe hyperglycemia, the document says.
This time, the complaint says, a CT scan showed a bubble of gangrene consuming Perez’ flesh.
A doctor on duty arranged for Perez to fly to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. He died there on Aug. 5, 2022, leaving behind his wife and two young children, says the complaint.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
