West News Wire: According to a court document filed on Friday, the late actor Bill Paxton’s family has decided to settle a wrongful death claim against a Los Angeles hospital and the doctor who operated on his heart just before he passed away in 2017.
The trial for the lawsuit, which was brought against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center more over four years ago, was set to begin next month. However, lawyers representing Louise, Paxton’s wife of 30 years, and their two kids, James and Lydia, said in a Los Angeles Superior Court filing that they had reached a settlement.
Bruce Broillet and Steve Heimberg, attorneys for the plaintiffs, declared in a statement that “the case has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”
The terms are confidential, the attorneys said. Emails seeking comment from the defendants were not immediately returned. The agreement must still be approved by a judge.
Paxton, who starred in films including “Apollo 13,” “Titanic” and “Aliens” and in television series including “Big Love,” died on Feb. 25, 2017.
The cause was a stroke that came 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage, according to his death certificate.
The lawsuit, filed a year later, alleged that the surgeon, Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, used a “high risk and unconventional surgical approach” that was unnecessary and that he lacked the experience to perform, and that he downplayed the procedure’s risks.
The misguided treatment caused Paxton to suffer excessive bleeding, cardiogenic shock and a compromised coronary artery, the suit alleged, and said that Cedars-Sinai knew that Khoynezhad, tended to “engage in maverick surgeries and show suboptimal judgment.”
The defendants said in court documents that Paxton and his family knew and understood the risks involved in the procedure, and voluntarily went on with the surgery. The defendants’ said there was no negligence that led to his death.
The four-year legal battle was marked by frequent attempts by the Paxton family to extract more discovery evidence from the hospital, and frequent court hearings over the issue.
Paxton, who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, was among the industry’s busiest actors from the early 1980s until his death, amassing nearly 100 credits, including “Twister” and “Weird Science.” He was starring in the CBS drama series “Training Day” when he died.
