A family has filed a lawsuit against Vista and said that the Waukegan hospital lied to them after a woman was found unresponsive on the hospital’s rooftop and died from cold exposure.
Civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in Chicago.
Crump, who is representing the family of Chelsea Adolphus, 28, of Waukegan, said the family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
Adolphus was admitted to the hospital for care last week and went missing before being found nearly seven hours later unresponsive on the rooftop of the hospital.
She died later that day after lifesaving measures failed to resuscitate her.
“Chelsea Adolphus died alone, freezing on the roof of a hospital where she went for help – a place that should have protected her. Instead, she was left to walk through an unsecured door that locked behind her, sealing her fate,” Crump said.
“This lawsuit is about holding Vista Medical Center accountable for the horrifying negligence that led to Chelsea’s death and ensuring that no other family has to suffer such a preventable tragedy,” he added.
The woman’s brother, Paul Adolphus, said that the hospital staff lied to him when he arrived at the hospital and told him that his sister had left the hospital and was found in the parking lot of a retail store blocks away.
Crump said he would get accountability and justice for what happened to Adolphus.
Adolphus was admitted to Vista Medical Center East around 4 a.m. on January 22 seeking medical treatment and help.
She left her patient room on the fifth floor around 2 a.m. on January 23 and was discovered almost seven hours later on the second-floor rooftop of the hospital at approximately 8:45 a.m., Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said during her press conference earlier this week.
“The door we believe she exited, if you exit that door, you are not able to return back inside of the hospital,” Banek said, adding that it is believed that the door she exited did not have alarms.
She was found unresponsive on the rooftop while only wearing her hospital gown. Temperatures were in the low 20s at the time.
Another patient or another patient’s family was the one who spotted Adolphus on the rooftop and notified staff.
Adolphus was brought from the rooftop to the emergency room where staff provided treatment, including warming her body temperature, which was 50 degrees Fahrenheit, Banek said.
The woman was pronounced dead around 11 p.m. on January 23 after staff attempted to resuscitate and warm Adolphus for 14 hours.
Banek said the hospital notified the Lake County Coroner’s Office minutes after Adolphus was pronounced dead but the hospital had not contacted the Waukegan Police Department yet.
The coroner’s office notified the police department, which met the coroner’s office at the hospital to start an investigation.
An autopsy was performed on Adolphus last week at the coroner’s office and the preliminary findings show she died from hypothermia due to cold exposure. The final cause of death is pending toxicology results.
Vista Health System CEO Kevin Spiegel said that the hospital is “devastated” about Adolphus’ death, which he called a “tragedy.”
The CEO said he is unable to comment on specific information due to HIPAA but said Vista reported the incident to the state and regulatory agencies in a “timely manner.”
“It is disappointing and truthfully unprecedented that the Lake County Coroner’s Office would choose to hold a press conference without our knowledge nor be given the opportunity to participate,” Spiegel said.
Spiegel called Banek’s comments at the press conference “biased” and “retaliatory” and said she has “extreme disdain” toward Vista Health System.
“The totality of her actions include using her position as an elected official to influence the public’s opinion and bolster support for personal vendetta has been occurring for approximately one year,” Spiegel said.
The CEO also said the coroner’s comments at her press conference were inaccurate and “not in the best interest of the community.”
Spiegel said Vista Health System has filed a request with the court for an emergency injunction to have Banek removed from the investigation.
He also disputed reports that recent furloughs at the hospital earlier this month impacted the safety of patients.
A reporter asked Spiegel during the press conference about the furloughs, to which he replied that he thought a total of 27 workers were furloughed.
A Vista staff member standing next to Spiegel blurted out that the hospital had actually furloughed 78 employees.
Banek said among the dozens of workers furloughed earlier this month were sitters, who are staff members who sit and watch patients to ensure they are safe when they are the most vulnerable.
“I had warned during a February 2024 press conference that lives were at stake. In high-stakes industries, like healthcare, we rely on evidence-based practices, transparency, and effective oversight as protective measures to make certain people do not die. A death is not the threshold by which we should be measuring the necessity for a call to action,” Banek said.
“American Healthcare Systems must be held accountable to provide safe, quality healthcare to Waukegan and its surrounding communities. It has repeatedly fallen short by failing to meet its financial obligations to vendors, clinical providers, the City of Waukegan for its water bill, in addition, to $1M owed in back taxes,” she said.
Spiegel said staff followed protocol after Adolphus went missing in the hospital but that the company has initiated corrective measures following her death.
“We’re confident that the way the staff handled the situation was 100% appropriate,” Spiegel said, adding that the police were notified — which the coroner’s office disputed — and a code immediately went out over the loudspeaker after she went missing.
Spiegel called the family’s decision to file a lawsuit against his hospital “good practice” and “totally appropriate.”