Family sues Waterbury Hospital over 21-year-old's death after ankle fracture treatment

Right · 2The family of Dale Alice Martin, 21, has filed a lawsuit against Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut, alleging that she died in April 2025 after the hospital gave her too much pain medication while treating a broken ankle. 1 2 Right · 2The suit, filed by family lawyer Christopher Mattei of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, says that within 14 hours of admission providers had given so much pain medication that Martin stopped breathing, and that no one checked on her during that time. 2 1 Right · 2According to the lawsuit, the same medications that impaired her breathing also sedated her, so she could not call for help, and a nurse who checked on her at 7 a.m. on April 10 found that her heart had stopped. 1 2

Right · 1The New York Post reports that an autopsy found she died of cardiac arrest after being given multiple painkillers, according to the suit. 1 Right · 1Martin was declared brain dead. Her father told the Hartford Courant the family kept vigil for three days, and doctors turned off the ventilator on April 13. 2 Right · 2Martin, from Manhattan and later Bethlehem, Connecticut, was a student at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She had fractured her ankle doing farm work, according to the New York Post, and the Daily Mail says she was on a sabbatical doing farm work and volunteering as a music teacher for disadvantaged children. 1 2

Right · 2The family also targets the hospital's former owner. Her father, Lindsay Martin, said they did not know the hospital was bankrupt and under investigation, and that nurses were allegedly buying food for patients. Waterbury Hospital was then owned by California-based Prospect Medical Holdings, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2025. 1 2 Right · 2Mattei said he expects to show the hospital was 'operating on fumes' because Prospect dismantled infrastructure and cut staff and training in a way that jeopardised care. He said more would be learned about how this contributed to the night Martin died. 2 1 Right · 2The two outlets differ on who owns the hospital now. The New York Post says Hartford HealthCare bought it and two others earlier this year, while the Daily Mail says it is owned by UConn Health. 1 2

Right · 2A hospital representative declined to comment to the New York Post because the death predated its current ownership. The former Prospect CEOs, David Topper and Von Crockett, did not respond to WNBC-TV's requests for comment. The Daily Mail said it had contacted the hospital. 1 2 Right · 1The Daily Mail adds context on private equity ownership of hospitals: an Annals of Internal Medicine report found a 13 percent increase in emergency room deaths at private equity-owned institutions, and Senator Chris Murphy's report described a 'buy, strip, flip' strategy at Prospect. 2