Family claims
malpractice
killed prisoner
WAILUKU >> A Maui family has alleged that below-standard medical care caused an inmate to have a heart attack and later die.
Dennis S. Baker, a former schoolteacher, was denied repeated requests for aspirin, which he relied on to protect him from heart attacks, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Maui Circuit Court.
The lawsuit alleges the incidents took place prior to Baker's heart attack at the Maui Community Correctional Center on Oct. 28, 2001.
Baker's wife, Mischa, and his two adult children, Ludwig and Luana Baker, charged that the failure to allow their father access to aspirin fell below the standard of care for medical doctors and medical facilities and constituted a lack of due care and a negligent act.
Attorney Anthony Ranken, representing the family, said Baker, who had suffered a previous heart attack, had the aspirin with him when he entered prison for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, and prison officials took it away from him.
Before incarceration, Baker had heart surgery for angioplasty and stent placement.
Ranken said a state Medical Claims Conciliation Panel, which reviews medical malpractice charges, awarded $78,000 to the family but the state contested the decision.
Baker had a fatal heart attack on Oct. 14, 2003. He was 59.
In November 1998, paramedics and police were called to his home because he was having health problems, and in the course of a police check, an officer found Baker had an outstanding traffic warrant stemming from having "old stickers," Mischa Baker said.
A jury found Baker guilty of resisting arrest and assaulting the police officer who tried to arrest him on the warrant, and Baker was sentenced to serve about 45 days, she said.
Mischa Baker said Dennis Baker had just come home from Maui Memorial Medical Center after being treated for a heart attack and was on strong medication.
"He was just all mixed up in his head," she said. "They should have understood he was under all these medications."
Mischa Baker said her husband was a chemistry and science teacher for 25 years at various schools, including a private Catholic school in Honolulu and a few public schools on the Valley Isle, including Maui Waena Intermediate.
She said she felt prison officials who refused to let her husband keep the aspirin had the attitude that "they can punish people extra."
John Peyton, director of the state Department of Public Safety, said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and declined comment.