Georgetown University Hospital failed to realize that a woman who died while waiting for a liver transplant was in the hospital, according a lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court.
While Donna Roy was in the hospital in 2008, an employee from the Georgetown Transplant Institute called Roy’s home phone number to notify her of an available liver. The mistake was never realized and the liver was given to another patient. The 59 year-old woman later died from complications caused by non-alcoholic cirrhosis on Thanksgiving day.
“It’s just unreal. She had been seen by a dozen doctors,” Dorothy Roy, her sister, told WUSA9. “Everyone knew she was at Georgetown. How did this happen that they called her at home?”
For more than a year, rumors suggested that Georgetown Public Library would re-open in Fall 2010. Now, that target date is a bit more specific.
According to a D.C. Public Library representative who contactedGeorgetown Metropolitan, the library plans to officially open its doors in October. The re-opening is quite the accomplishment, considering that after a three-alarm fire destroyed the building in May 2007, reconstruction efforts were wrought with legal tussles and finger-pointing.
The fire, which was allegedly caused by heat guns, led to a $13 million lawsuit brought by the D.C. government against a Dynamic Corp., a construction company contracted to work in the library. After the city blamed Dynamic Corp., the company turned around and contested the suit, claiming that the D.C. Fire Department botched the investigation.
Luckily, the lawsuit didn’t ultimately derail the reconstruction process. GM has the rundown of the library’s renovated look, but personally, we’re just happy to see it re-open. (Have you ever seen the library’s DVD collection? It’s a hidden gem, we swear!)
The lawsuit filed by Georgetown student Taylor Price (MSB ’10) is moving al0ng, with Mr. Smith’s filing a response on November 9th to Price’s allegations. Price sued Mr. Smith’s in September for discriminating against him because he uses a wheelchair.
Mr. Smith’s response (below) denies almost everything Price’s original complaint asserted. Just about the only thing Mr. Smith’s is willing to admit is that they are the friendliest saloon in town:
Defendants admit the allegations contained in Paragraph 19 of the Complaint that Mr. Smith’s of Georgetown, a restaurant and piano bar, is a popular location for D.C. residents and local college students, and particularly in Georgetown, to gather and celebrate events.
Last year, former D.C. Councilmember Harold Brazil was charged with assault for getting into a physical fight with an employee at Jinx Proof Tattoo parlor. Brazil, then 59-year-old, walked into the M Street shop with two women, one of whom was getting a tattoo. When Brazil tried to follow her into the back of the shop, he got into an altercation with one of the employees.
The May court hearing about the incident revealed that in addition to exchanging punches and expletives with Jinx Proof employees, Brazil also peed on the store’s floor. Brazil was found guilty, and was sentenced to a 30-day suspended sentence, 6 months unsupervised probation, and a $100 fine.
But Brazil’s not willing to accept the verdict. He’s now appealing his conviction and suing the parlor for $5 million, accusing them of assault, the Washington Business Journal reported.
Saying that the witnesses who reported the incident had request that the case be dropped, Brazil told the Business Journal that he questions “the true motive … behind the prosecution and the unfairness of prosecuting a former politician for no articulable reason.”
Earlier this month, the parties jointly filed for and were granted an extension of the due date for Mr. Smith’s response to the suit, according to the most recent court documents for the case. The extension was requested because lawyers for Price and Mr. Smith’s are “currently engagaged in discussions to explore the possibility of settlement.”
According to the court documents (which can be found in full after the jump):
Counsel for Plaintiff and counsel for Mr. Smith’s both agree that these settlement discussions may resolve this action in its entirety.
Thus, it is in the interest of judicial economy and in an effort to conserve party resources that counsel seek an extension of the time within which Mr. Smith’s may file a responsive pleading.
Mr. Smith’s response would have been due October 7th, but since the extension was granted it is now due November 7th.
When asked about the status of the case, Price responded in an e-mail, “There is nothing significant to report at this time, but there may be soon.”
Last year, the Voice got excited by the prospect of Bloomingdale’s setting up shop in the Shops at Georgetown Park on M Street, but now it looks like it’s not to be: the department store has pulled out of the project, according to a recent article in the Georgetown Current [PDF].
According to the Current, Bloomingdale’s—which was going to be the main attraction in a revamped Georgetown Park complex—backed out because of on-going litigation over the ownership of the development:
A Bloomingdale’s spokesperson declined to comment on the change, but an attorney for Western Development, which owns the retail-residential complex, confirmed the news.
“It is our understanding that given this litigation, Bloomingdale’s will not be proceeding as the anchor tenant,” said attorney Scott Morrison.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
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