NEW YORK, NY. (THECOUNT) — New York woman, Shirell Powell, is suing a Bronx hospital over the case of mistaken identity, claiming she and other family members were put through more than a month of unnecessary grief.
Powell received a daunting call from a hospital saying her brother, Frederick Williams, was in grave condition after overdosing on drugs and severely injuring his brain.
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After summoning family members, some from other states, Powell sat vigil for days at her dying brother’s hospital bedside agonizing over the decision to end life support.
After finally authorizing doctors to pull the plug, she then proceeded to arrange his funeral. That’s is, until hospital officials realized they had made a huge error and had actually contacted the wrong family.
As it turned out, the man wasn’t her brother at all, but a stranger with a similar name.
Her actual brother, Frederick Williams, was alive and well, but unbeknownst to his family, locked up in the city jail.
Family members arriving to the hospital to spend their last moments with the man who they believed was Williams said they had their doubts when they saw him.
Powell said she was shocked to find her almost unrecognisable “brother” with a tube in his mouth and a severely swollen appearance caused by brain trauma. Another sibling arrived and raised doubts about whether some error had been made.
“She walked up into the room and said, ‘That is not my brother,'” Powell said. But the man’s facial features were similar enough that the family decided it couldn’t be a mistake, reports WKBN.
According to Powell’s lawsuit, “Freddy Clarence Williams” was admitted to the hospital unconscious with brain damage following a drug overdose. The hospital scanned its records finding that a Frederick Williams had been previously treated at the facility. They then proceeded to notify family members, the suit said.
One of Frederick Williams’ two teenage daughters came from Virginia to say their goodbyes.
“She was hysterical,” Powell recalled. “She was holding his hand, kissing him, crying.”
Powell says she’s now living with the realization she authorized doctors to withdraw life support from a non-family member back on July 29. The suit notes that the city’s medical examiner didn’t find the erroneous identification until Aug. 16.
“I nearly fainted because I killed somebody that I didn’t even know. I gave consent,” said Powell.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation for severe emotional harm.
Powell said that she has since gone to visit her real brother at a court appearance and phoned him in jail. His charges were not revealed in the suit, which is now pending.