Man who choked on steak dies in hospital after shocking life support mix-up
The family of a man whose life support was wrongly turned off in a disastrous case of mistaken identity are demanding answers from the hospital responsible.
69-year-old David Wells was rushed to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington in August 2021 after choking on a piece of steak at dinner time.
He was placed on life support, but a mix-up at the hospital meant staff contacted the family of David’s roommate, Michael Beehler, by mistake.
Debbie Danielson, Michael’s sister, made the heartbreaking decision to end life support for her brother.
But in fact she was authorising the death of Daniel, a complete stranger who happened to be in the same room as her brother.
Debbie placed a death notice for her brother in the local newspaper and started making funeral arrangements – only to receive the shock of her life when Michael phoned her to ask why his phone service had been deactivated.
She and her husband Gary contacted the police immediately and demanded answers after realising her brother was still alive, meaning they had given the go-ahead to turn off life support for a complete stranger.
‘We made life-ending decisions for a person we don’t even know. We never got an explanation. We never got a sorry or anything,’ Gary said.
Recalling the horrific phone call, Debbie told KGW: ‘They said “He’s basically brain dead, do you want us to keep him on life support or do you want to pull the plug?”
‘That whole week was kind of a blur. Trying to come up with funeral arrangements, letting family members know that he passed away.’
Emails from the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed the extent of the misidentification.
After David passed away on August 9, his body was incorrectly identified as Michael’s and sent to a funeral home.
Meanwhile, David’s family believed he had died under more routine circumstances.
Shawn Wells, David’s son, described the emotional toll of learning that strangers had decided his father’s fate – something he didn’t find out about until 2023, two years later.
‘I’m at a loss for words how badly they handled this,’ he said. ‘I’ll never be able to get that decision back. It’s something I’ll carry with me forever.’
To make matters worse, Shawn discovered that his father’s organs were donated against his wishes.
He said: ‘It’s disturbing. They dropped the ball so egregiously.
‘It would have been a very easily identifiable mark on his body. Even if there was any slight confusion about his identity, I think it would have been quickly resolved.’
Both families are now suing PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, along with the ambulance service, funeral home, and Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office, accusing them of negligence and severe emotional distress.
The lawsuit alleges that misidentification errors began with the initial 911 call and continued throughout the process, at every stage from the hospital to the funeral home.
Despite calls for accountability, PeaceHealth has declined to provide specific details as to how the mix-up was able to occur, citing patient privacy laws.
A spokesperson for the hospital stated: ‘PeaceHealth has worked diligently to strengthen our patient identification processes… Our unwavering commitment of caring for our community remains stronger than ever.’
In the wake of the incident, the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office has revised its protocols to require family members to identify deceased individuals or to use fingerprinting when direct identification is not possible.
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