(KRON) – John Muir Health Walnut Creek Medical Center has been hit with a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the hospital and doctors of negligence in the death of an Acalanes High School athlete. The lawsuit claims the teen’s death was “preventable.”
Amin Norouzi, 17, was a popular football player at Acalanes High School in Lafayette. As a three-sport athlete, he also participated in wrestling and track and field.
On April 13, a sunny day at Stinson Beach with friends changed in an instant when Norozi ran across the sand, dove into shallow ocean waves, and hit his head on a sandbar. “When Amin hit his head with a sand bar, his neck broke, causing a serious cervical spine injury,” the lawsuit said.
Norouzi was airlifted by helicopter to the Level II Trauma Center at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, where he underwent emergency spinal surgery. The high school athlete died in hospital four days later, on April 17.
“This case concerns the preventable death of seventeen-year-old Amin Norouzi, a promising student-athlete whose life was cut short due to systemic medical failures at John Muir Health (JMH). Although he successfully survived the initial trauma of a diving accident, Amin died four days later due to defendants’ gross negligence in managing life-threatening complications that should have been foreseen,” the lawsuit states. And processed in accordance with applicable medical standards. “Protocols.”
Attorneys at Khashayar Law Group represent Norouzi’s parents and filed the lawsuit in Contra Costa County Superior Court last month.
Norouzi’s neck injury was a high-level spinal cord injury (SCI). This disrupted communication between his brain and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in his body, according to the lawsuit.
“The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary functions essential to life, including blood pressure, heart rate, and regulation of body temperature. When the neural pathways that control these functions are damaged, it creates a state of dangerous dysregulation that requires expert and ongoing monitoring and intervention,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that the hospital failed to provide accurate diagnosis, effective treatment and appropriate medications.
After the surgery was completed, the teenager’s health rapidly deteriorated to a life-threatening extent. Hospital staff allegedly failed to take quick action when Norouzi suffered cardiac arrest, kidney damage and blood poisoning.
“The mismanagement of Amin Norouzi’s care, particularly in the critical postoperative period, was so severe and extensive that it virtually guaranteed that he would not survive. Despite undergoing what appeared to be a successful initial surgery, Amin received woefully inadequate care, which directly caused his suffering and death,” the lawsuit states.
The lawyers claim that John Muir’s Level II Trauma Center should not have accepted Norouzi as a patient because he was not qualified and lacked experience in pediatrics. According to the lawsuit, multiple Level I trauma centers with “vastly superior capabilities” were available to Norozi, including UCSF-Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland and Stanford Hospital.
The lawsuit requires a jury trial.
GoFundMe page This led to a fundraiser for the teen’s ICU medical care and his celebration of life raising nearly $200,000.