A Montesano man has filed a wrongful death suit aimed at the Grays Harbor County Public Hospital District 1, Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma and a Summit Pacific physician after the man’s wife collapsed and died just hours after an examination in April of 2016.
The suit was filed May 10 in Grays Harbor County Superior Court by Leonard Barnes in regard to the treatment of his wife, Kristine Barnes, at Summit Pacific the day of her death. Barnes is well-known in the county from his position as an executive at the Port of Grays Harbor and his time coaching basketball at Grays Harbor College and Aberdeen High School. Kris Barnes was well-known in the community for her part in youth sports activities and as the daughter of the late Bob Basich, a popular legislator from Aberdeen.
“It’s a tragic case of a wonderful woman who died when she shouldn’t have died,” said attorney Wayne Hagen Jr., one of two of Barnes’ attorneys listed in court documents.
Kristine Barnes went to the emergency department of Summit Pacific Medical Center shortly after 1:30 a.m. on April 14, 2016, complaining of worsening back pain over the previous eight hours, preceded by nausea and vomiting, according to court documents.
The physician named in the suit, Vincent Ball, allegedly assessed that Barnes was in no acute distress, had “decreased back motion, but exhibited no tenderness in the back,” according to court documents. Ball ordered a CT scan of Barnes’ abdomen, which provided no explanation for the pain. After treating her nausea and vomiting, Ball discharged Barnes in the early morning hours of April 14.
Barnes returned to her Montesano home where, just two hours after arriving, she collapsed and became unresponsive. Resuscitation efforts by emergency medical technicians were unsuccessful and she died about 7:30 a.m., according to the suit.
Summit Pacific’s senior executive assistant and public records officer Jori Stott told The Daily World it is the center’s policy to not comment on issues surrounding patient care.
The Daily World made several attempts to contact Ball at several associated phone numbers but was not successful.
