Parents of Deceased 21-Year-Old Suing West Hills Hospital & Medical Center

The parents of a 21-year-old Woodland Hills woman are suing West Hills Hospital & Medical Center and several doctors, alleging their daughter’s death from brain and liver problems occurred because she did not get the proper care after her health deteriorated.

Tom Fahardi and Doris Mares, the father and mother of Anisa Farhadi, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The complaint alleges negligence, wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

“Anisa died as a result of defendants’ failure to administer competent care, to diagnose and treat her liver and brain complications accurately (and) to transfer her to the appropriate facilities for treatment,” the suit alleges.

A hospital representative did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

According to the complaint, Farhadi checked herself into West Hills Hospital emergency room on Nov. 19, 2013 after suffering from abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite and vomiting for about two weeks.

While one doctor found no abnormalities based on an ultrasound, another physician concluded she had intense inflammation of her liver, the suit states. Farhadi was depressed and anxious during her treatments at the hospital and eventually became agitated and worried, the suit states.

Farhadi was transferred to the intensive care unit and she was eventually diagnosed with both liver failure and swelling of her brain that reached “a point past critical,” according to the complaint.

Although one doctor recognized the seriousness of Farhadi’s condition and texted a neurologist to come quickly, the latter physician wrote back that she was “currently in an appointment” and would “see (Farhadi) in a little while,” the suit states.

The neurologist later wrote in a consultation report that she contemplated not seeing Farhadi, the suit states.

“I was concerned that my coming in when I was finally told it was urgent that I might be chastised for that,” the neurologist wrote, according to the lawsuit.

The neurologist eventually did see Farhadi, but watched while a physician assistant placed a device in the patient’s brain to drain it instead of performing the care herself, the suit states. The assistant then incorrectly inserted an intracranial monitor, according to the lawsuit.

Although Farhadi’s family members asked that she be transferred to a hospital with a staff more capable of treating the woman, their request was refused, according to the lawsuit.

Farhadi died last Nov. 22, three days after her admission to West Hills Hospital, the suit states.

—City News Service

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