Lawsuit says doctor wouldn’t check for what killed his patient: Meningitis

Former prosecutor and defense lawyer Patrick W. Peters died of cyptrococcal meningitis because a physician at Lee’s Summit Medical Center failed to diagnose the illness, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his widow, who is also a lawyer.

The suit in Jackson County Circuit Court names the medical center, Kansas City Neurology Associates and physician J. Woody Harlan as defendants. In court filings, all three defendants deny negligence.

Peters, who was an assistant Jackson County prosecutor before turning to private practice, died Jan. 21, 2017, at age 62. He had become ill the previous November after returning from Arizona for work on a case.

Peters was well-respected by prosecutors as well as defense lawyers. When he died, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Peters “was a warrior in the courtroom, fighting for his clients.”

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney John Osgood, now in private practice, called him “a great trial lawyer and a friend.”

The lawsuit describes 11 days in November 2016 when Peters’ condition steadily worsened. He went to the emergency department of Lee’s Summit Medical Center on the morning of Nov. 13 “after experiencing a seven-day-long progressive and throbbing headache, difficulty speaking coherently, bouts of confusion and fatigue, the recent onset of nausea and vomiting and posterior head pain with movement,” the lawsuit states.

Harlan examined Peters the next morning and he was discharged that afternoon “still with a headache and concerns about his ability to walk,” the suit states. Peters was offered physical therapy, prescribed hydrocodone and told to follow up with a neurologist in three to four weeks.

The following day, Nov. 15, Peters returned to the hospital “with worsening head pain, nausea, loss of balance, slurred speech, fatigue, confusion, and now deficits in vision,” the lawsuit said. Harlan saw Peters briefly early the next morning in the emergency room and again later that morning while Peters was experiencing hallucinations, the suit says. It also says Harlan considered ordering a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap, “to assess for infectious diseases.”

That afternoon, the suit alleges, Harlan advised another doctor not to perform the spinal tap as Peters “was unable to follow commands and was combative,” the lawsuit says. Instead, Peters was assessed for alcohol withdrawal.

The next morning, the suit says, Harlan again decided against a spinal tap and asked Peters’ wife, Shelley Peters, about her husband’s alcohol intake. That afternoon she had her husband transferred to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, where a spinal tap was performed and Peters’ fluid tested positive for meningitis.

Lee’s Summit Medical Center’s reply to the lawsuit says Harlan is not an employee or agent of the hospital.

Harlan’s reply to the lawsuit “specifically denies that Plaintiff suffered any damages as a result of any negligent acts on the part of the Defendant.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Lawsuit says doctor wouldn’t check for what killed his patient: Meningitis."