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Nearly a year after actor Bill Paxton’s surprising death at only 61 years old, the star’s family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit in which they blame the doctor who operated on Paxton and the hospital where it occurred for his untimely death.
On Friday February 9, the family filed the suit against surgeon Ali Khoynezhad and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center according to multiple reports. In the documents the family claim that the doctor and the hospital provided Paxton with “negligent diagnosis, management, and treatment,” which resulted in his death on February 25, 2017.
They are also claiming that the hospital “failed to disclose that [Dr. Khoynezhad] was going to use a high risk and unconventional surgical approach with which he lacked experience and which was, based upon information and belief, beyond the scope of his privileges.”
The suit continues that the doctor was not present when Paxton began to suffer complications from his surgery and additionally the doctor had not properly arranged for the proper care and coverage of his patient while he was away which the family says led to “a delay in treatment resulting in damage.”
“Bill Paxton and his family trusted the physicians and staff at this medical facility but instead Cedars-Sinai betrayed their trust,” said the family’s attorney Bruce Broillet in a statement. “The surgeon’s actions resulted in this tragic and preventable death.”
The statement added that Dr. Khoynezhad had left his position as a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai not long after Paxton’s death. We are pursuing accountability and justice from a physician and a hospital that failed to adequately protect Mr. Paxton,” said another attorney for the plaintiffs, Steve Heimberg.
After news of the lawsuit broke, the hospital shared a statement in which they said they could not comment about patient care but did add, “But we can share the following: Nothing is more important to Cedars-Sinai than the health and safety of our patients. These remain our top priorities. One of the reasons for our high quality is that we thoroughly review concerns about any patient’s medical care. This process ensures that we can continue to provide the highest quality care.”
As previously reported, Paxton initially underwent surgery on February 14, 2017, for heart surgery to replace a valve and correct an aortic aneurysm, but complications arose during surgery which caused a stroke. After more complications, the actor died 11 days later on February 25, 2017.