The estate of an elderly Lincoln County man who died last year has filed a wrongful death complaint against two Danville doctors and Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Boyle Circuit Court by the estate of William Douglas Smith, names Dr. Barry Spoonamore and Dr. Tariq Muhammad as defendants, along with the hospital.
Neither the doctors nor the hospital has yet responded to the allegations in the complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Smith was taken to Ephraim McDowell on April 9, 2010, vomiting and complaining of severe abdominal pain. He was treated by Muhammad, who diagnosed a bowel obstruction and scheduled a gastrojejunostomy with Spoonamore, the complaint states.
The operation was performed by Spoonamore on April 17, after which Smith began experiencing respiratory failure. He developed a condition called sepsis, which caused his major organs to malfunction, the lawsuit maintains.
The doctors failed to diagnose the sepsis and Smith continued to suffer from respiratory difficulties and a swollen abdomen. On April 20, Smith’s family asked that he be transferred to the University of Kentucky Medical Center, but the doctors and the hospital refused the request, the complaint alleges.
