* Tyler Baker, 22. Says he wasn't notified of positive test result.
The failure of health providers to communicate a positive test result for the C. difficile bacterial infection is what Baker says led him to develop a life-threatening condition called toxic megacolon in 2014.
The avid athlete says Oro Valley Hospital tested him for C. difficile when he went to the emergency room with severe cramps and diarrhea, but it failed to let him know he tested positive.
Baker had pre-existing ulcerative colitis but says it was the failure to diagnose the C. difficile and the damage it did to his body that led his colon to rupture during emergency surgery. He faces a lifetime of serious health problems.
The hospital has denied wrongdoing and Baker's lawsuit is pending.
* James V. Massara, 56. Doctors fell below the 'standard of care.'
Poor communication and a lack of information about her husband's death is why Susan Massara decided to sue the federal government over his care at the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System.
James Massara, who was a paraplegic, died in 2011, two days after he went to the VA hospital suffering from dehydration and abdominal pain from a bowel obstruction. The court found that Massara could have lived at least 12 more years had he been properly treated with fluids and had doctors worked faster to remove the bowel obstruction.
"They were basically just letting him lay there and die," Susan Massara said.
A federal judge ruled in Massara's favor and she received a financial award.
* Byron Van Tassell, 63. Developed a pressure ulcer while hospitalized.
Pressure ulcers are considered preventable, which is what led a Pima County jury last year to award $6.5 million to Van Tassell's family.
Van Tassell in 2007 developed a pressure sore at the base of his spine while hospitalized at what was then University Medical Center (now Banner-University Medical Center Tucson). The hospital denied negligence.
A month earlier Van Tassell had been paralyzed from the waist down after falling off a roof.
The pressure ulcer advanced to stage three, which is considered a “never event” in hospitals — something that is preventable and should never happen, his family's lawyer has argued.
Over the next four years Van Tassell was admitted to hospitals and nursing homes more than 20 times.
Among his problems were recurrent urinary tract infections, recurrent skin breakdown, gangrene, depression, bowel obstructions and diabetes, court documents say. He died in 2012.
* Mike Beatty, 51. Discharged alone while on morphine.
Mike Beatty walked out of Oro Valley Hospital alone, on morphine, in the middle of a December night. He then fell 15 feet off a bridge and was paralyzed from the waist down.
The 43-year-old father of two had been at the emergency room in 2007 suffering pain for what was discovered to be a kidney stone. He was treated with medication and fluids and then discharged at 2:41 a.m.
Hospital officials say they thought Beatty was leaving with his wife. She was on her way, but not there yet. So Beatty, in what his lawyer called a "drug induced stupor," left alone on foot.
A jury found the hospital responsible for Beatty's injury. Before a second trial to determine the damages, the hospital agreed to settle for $5 million.
The case was unusual because most medical settlements do not make the details public.
* Theresa Tedesco, 96. Alleged neglectful care.
Tedesco was elderly but her family says she deserved better than to die in 2012 after spending her final two days without food or water, suffering from an undiagnosed illness.
Her family says Tedesco, who had dementia, was completely dependent on Emeritus at Tanque Verde, 9050 E. Tanque Verde Road, and that the facility failed to properly take care of her. Emeritus has since merged with Brookdale, the largest elder care company in the U.S.
It was discovered too late that Tedesco had C. Difficile. She wasn't tested for it even though she'd been showing symptoms, and, "was left to just deteriorate without receiving any medical assistance at all," according to a pending lawsuit.
The lawsuit says Tedesco's granddaughter knew something was wrong when she found her slumped over in her chair with a glazed look in her eyes, with no intervention from indifferent staff members. The lawsuit alleges the facility was inadequately staffed.
"They took her money but did not take care of her, and then lied about it by falsifying the records," lawyers Barry A. MacBan and David F. Toone wrote.
The memory care facility has denied wrongdoing.
* Rob Sweitzer, 39. Widow says treatment delay caused husband's death.
Sweitzer, a scientist, died on Feb. 10, 2008 — his 39th birthday — after what his widow described as an excruciating eight-hour wait in a crowded Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital ER.
Rachel Sweitzer has said said her pleas for help were ignored as her husband's breathing worsened. In a lawsuit she argued that earlier intervention could have saved his life.
The hospital and doctor named in the lawsuit denied wrongdoing. The case was settled confidentially.
An autopsy report showed Sweitzer died of an aggressive pneumonia caused by a particularly virulent form of staph known as MRSA, which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S aureus). He'd been otherwise healthy and had no underlying health conditions.
