Superintendent files $15M lawsuit against Fauquier Hospital claiming 'medical negligence ...

Source: , Posted On:   23 November 2022

Fauquier County Public Schools Superintendent David Jeck is suing Fauquier Hospital and three other hospital staff/agents for medical negligence, which he claims contributed to the 2021 death of his son, David Collins Jeck, who died seven days after being taken to the hospital’s emergency department.

The $15 million suit, filed on Nov. 15 with Fauquier County Circuit Court, alleges the defendants, Fauquier Medical Center, LLC, Advanced Digestive Care, LLC, Gastroenterology Associates, and Dr. Tinatin K. O’Connell, committed “negligent and/or reckless acts and/or omissions” by failing to:

  • Provide gastroenterology specialist consultant services to treat Jeck after he arrived at Fauquier Hospital.

  • Implement a contingency plan after it was discovered the specialist could not be reached.

  • Respond to a request for a consult and perform treatment “on a timely basis.” (The consultant did not see or treat Jeck until nine hours after he arrived at the hospital.)

  • Employ a “degree of skill and diligence” in Jeck’s treatment expected of other “reasonably prudent hospitals, practice groups, and/or physicians in the same field of health care services.”

The plaintiff is suing the defendants on two counts of medical negligence and seeking $10 million under the Wrongful Death Act, as well as an additional $5 million for “severe pain, suffering, mental and emotional anguish, and other injuries and damages before [Jeck’s] untimely, painful and preventable death, which was caused by the defendants’ negligent conduct.”

Fauquier Hospital and Gastroenterology Associates did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advanced Digestive Care LLC could not be reached for comment.

No court dates have been set in the lawsuit.