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Ex-lawmaker amends suit anew, names another CHCC staff as a co-defendant
Former representative Ana S. Teregeyo has amended her lawsuit again by including another staff of the Commonwealth Health Center as a co-defendant for alleged negligence that caused her left knee and leg to become infected, necessitating five more surgeries and an artificial knee replacement.
Teregeyo’s original lawsuit named the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., CEO Esther L. Muna, and some medical staff officers as defendants. She later added Dr. Greg Kotheimer and Dr. Sherleen Osman to the suit.
Kotheimer is the acting chief of staff for CHCC, while Osman is the acting director of Medical Affairs.
In her amended complaint Wednesday, Teregeyo added Benjamin J. Hochhalter as co-defendant. She said Hochhalter, acting as a physician assistant employee of CHCC, failed to diagnose and properly and timely intervene in the management of her surgical incision.
She said CHCC, by way of Kotheimer, Osman, and other officers, “failed to act in a manner set forth in the CHCC hospital bylaws, thus denying her orthopedic surgeon doctor the ability to care for her left knee and leg during her post-operative care recovery.”
Teregeyo is demanding an unspecified amount of damages for pain and suffering, mental anguish, and expenses.
Teregeyo was admitted to the Commonwealth Health Center on Nov. 2, 2013, because of a shattered tibia bone. She was treated by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Grant Walker.
Teregeyo was released on Nov. 27, 2013. She saw Hochhalter during follow up visits to the orthopedic clinic of the hospital.
Teregeyo said Hochhalter took out the post-operative sutures too early, resulting the gap in the incision to go untreated. She said an infection continued eating away at the bone below and including her left knee. She said the infection necessitated six surgeries, including a full artificial replacement of her knee.
Teregeyo said she had to be treated for 10 months on the U.S. mainland, where she received five additional surgeries.
