On Monday, November 20, 2006, the law firm of Regan Zambri & Long filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum.  The following is a copy of the press release that was issued in connection with a press conference conducted by Marcus Rosenbaum, David Rosenbaum's brother.

WASHINGTON, DC - The family of David Rosenbaum has filed a $20 million civil lawsuit against the District of Columbia and Howard Univeristy Hospital for negligence in the care and treatment of the former New York Times reporter.  David Rosenbaum, a 63 year old, was on an evening walk on Friday, January 6, 2006 near his northwest Washington home, when he was brutally assaulted by two robbers.  As a result of the assault, he suffered blunt trauma injuries to his head, torso and extremities.

The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, November 20, 2006, by Mr. Rosenbaum's two children, Dorothy and Daniel Rosenbaum, was filed against the following defendants:  The District of Columbia, Howard University, Howard University Hospital, and two of the hospital's emergency room doctors who should have treated David Rosenbaum, Aaisya N. Ansari-Lawal and Amit Wadhwa.  The Rosenbaum family is represented by Patrick M. Regan, Paul Cornoni and Catherine Bertram of the Washington, DC law firm of Regan Zambri & Long.

David Rosenbaum's death was caused by a cascade of errors throughout the city's medical emergency response system.  At every turn, if people had simply performed their job, Mr. Rosenbaum would still be alive.  The family wants to make sure that systematic changes are made to prevent this from happening in the future and that the hospital and City are held responsible.

The DC rescue squad personnel who arrived on the scene of the assault, and were responsible for providing the initial care to Mr. Rosenbaum, repeatedly failed to recognize the severity of his injuries.  They also failed to transport him to a hospital as a high-priority case, and instead designated him in the lowest category of transport ("Category 3-Low Priority").  They also failed to transport Mr. Rosenbaum to the nearest qualified hospital where his injuries would have been immediately assessed and properly treated.  As a result of these failures, Mr. Rosenbaum did not arrive at an emergency room until an hour after the ambulance was initially dispatched (9:30 p.m. dispatch, 10:30 p.m. arrival at Howard Emergency Room).

The physician at the emergency room at Howard University Hospital failed to examine Mr. Rosenbaum for nearly 90 minutes after he arrived at the hospital while he sat unattended in the hallway moaning and vomiting.  The initial nurse who examined Mr. Rosenbaum failed to perform a neurological assessment, and then the charge nurse instructed staff to leave him unattended in the hallway.  The failure to assess Mr. Rosenbaum in a timely fashion by the Howard University Hospital personnel resulted in a seven-hour delay in the performance of his emergency brain surgery.

"The hospital let my father sit - agonizing in pain - without doing simple due diligence to establish what condition he was in," said Daniel Rosenbaum.  "DC residents need to demand more respect for human life in our hospitals, and we hope this suit will be a first step to implement the necessary changes in our ER's."

In addition to the claims of medical negligence against Howard University Hospital, the lawsuit includes claims against the District of Columbia Police Department for failing to investigate the beating of a retired DC police sergeant in November 2005.  The retired DC police sergeant was brutally attacked by one or both of the men who attacked Mr. Rosenbaum.  If the police department had performed even a perfunctory investigation of the assault of the retired DC police sergeant, they would have arrested these individuals, and Mr. Rosenbaum would never have been assaulted.  The DC police department did not even label the violent assault of the retired police officer as criminal activity.

The lawsuit has been assigned to District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Morin and is Civil Action No. 0008405-06.  A scheduling conference is scheduled with Judge Morin on February 23, 2007.  To see a copy of the lawsuit, please click here.

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