The family of a Washington woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit following her untimely death while sitting in a hospital waiting room.

Forty-one-year-old Cheyenna Costello was complaining of severe stomach pain on November 2, 2022. During the evening hours, her pain worsened and included vomiting and diarrhea, prompting her husband to call 911. Responding officers took Costello to her local area hospital, Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington.

Upon arrival, Costello was assessed by a doctor who determined she was “critically ill with significant risk to decompensate and even death, requiring prompt bedside evaluation and intervention.” Despite this initial evaluation, Costello would go on to wait up to 4 ½ hours in the busy waiting room.

During this time, she began to seize, as described by the lawsuit, prompting staff to admit her. When she was taken to the back for further evaluation, doctors were unable to stabilize her, and Costello was eventually declared dead. According to the coroner's report, Costello suffered from acute and chronic pancreatitis, which resulted in probable cardiac dysrhythmia.

The family’s attorney, Marlena Grundy, shares, “When you're 41 years old and generally healthy, and you go to the ER, with pain in your stomach, no one thinks that a few hours later that person is going to be gone.”

The lawsuit details that Costello’s husband, Sean Costello, did everything right through his wife's medical emergency. Despite asking hospital officials where in the queue his wife was and telling staff his wife didn’t look well, his wife’s condition went overlooked.

Grundy expressed the family’s grief and frustration with the unfolding events by sharing, “When we go to the emergency room, we are at our most vulnerable, and we have to rely on the trust of the medical professional there. We need to speak about these things, and we need to be aware of them. We need to be talking to our legislators,” Grundy said.

The lawsuit accuses the hospital of failing to care for Costello despite her critical state upon arrival. “Had the metabolic tests been timely performed, staff would have had enough time to diagnose her pancreatitis and correct the potassium imbalance. Yet, despite these scores and her abnormal vital signs, she was left to languish in the emergency department lobby for about four-and-a-half hours, without proper monitoring and/or assessment, until she started seizing and died from an easily treatable condition.”

The lawsuit contends that the defendants were negligent in their care and treatment of Costello and that they are liable under state law. The lawsuit details the hospital and its providers had a duty to properly care for Costello but failed in that duty.

In addition to failing to recognize a critically ill patient, the complaint alleges those responsible failed to create and enforce policies for adequate care of critically ill individuals who come into the hospital. Additionally, the lawsuit accuses the providers of failing to meet the standard of care to keep Costello safe and that their breach of duty is what led to Costello’s death.

John Lutgens, a Vancouver, Washington personal injury attorney, commented that ”this tragic case underscores the critical importance of timely and adequate medical care, especially in emergency situations. The allegations, if proven true, could demonstrate a severe breach of the standard of care expected from medical professionals and the hospital. In wrongful death cases like this one, the key issue often revolves around proving negligence—that the hospital staff's actions or inactions directly led to the patient's death.”

Lutgens continued that “the lawsuit mentions that the hospital failed to properly monitor and assess Cheyenna Costello despite her critical condition upon arrival. This could potentially be a violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals to properly screen and stabilize patients in emergency situations.”

Lutgens also noted that medical malpractice cases like this one are complex and require thorough investigation and expert testimony to establish the standard of care and how it was breached. “The family's attorney, Marlena Grundy, rightly points out that emergency rooms are places where we are most vulnerable and place immense trust in medical professionals. When that trust is broken, and it leads to a loss of life, the legal system must step in to provide justice and accountability."

The family’s lawsuit is seeking damages under Washington’s wrongful death and survival statutes. Under Washington state law, a set of statutes determine whether or not a wrongful death and/or survival claim exists. They include RCW sections 4.24.005 - 4.20.060. Under these wrongful death and survival statutes, a victim estate can seek damages, including:

• Loss of future income
• Inheritance the deceased would have been able to provide for their family had they lived
• Loss of household services the deceased would have provided if they still lived
• Funeral and burial expenses
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of companionship
• Other expenses that resulted from the death

The lawsuit is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, including attorney's fees and court costs. Along with her husband, Costello leaves behind three young children. An online fundraiser set up by Costello’s mother shares that Costello’s death has left “a hole in our hearts” and that Costello’s husband is left to scramble for a way to support himself and the couple’s three children on a single income.

Tricia Nelson organized the Costello Family Support Fund via GoFundMe on behalf of Sean Costello.