CHARLESTON – The widow of a Kanawha County man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a healthcare facility, a doctor and a certified physician’s assistant for failing to diagnose his bladder cancer.
Cathy M. Bell, as administratrix of the estate of Freddie Elmo Bell Jr. filed her complaint March 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Family Health Associates of Kanawha Valley, Dr. Julie Ann Detemple and Kelly A. Whoolery, P.A.C.
According to the complaint, Freddie Elmo Bell first visited Family Health Associates in January 2015. In 2016, he began making genitourinary complaints to PA Joseph Wonstettler, who dismissed them as an enlarged prostate and prescribed medication to assist with urinary incontinence.
diTrapano
His complaints persisted, and Bell was transferred to Whoolery. Records show Whoolery prescribed Oxybutynin Chloride after he complained of urge incontinence on November 6, 2017, according to the complaint.
Frustrated by the facility’s lack of progress with his condition, Bell went to Lincoln Primary Care Center in January 2018. There, Family Nurse Practitioner Jacqueline Ranson told Bell his urinary incontinence was a result of an enlarged prostate and prescribed medication for that.
In September 2018, Ranson ordered a CT of Bell’s abdomen and pelvis. That revealed a mass-like wall thickening along the posterior left side urinary bladder, according to the complaint. The next month, Bell underwent transurethral resection of a bladder tumor.
But despite surgery and treatment, his bladder cancer spread to his lungs, according to the complaint, and resulted in his death on December 31, 2019.
Cathy Bell says the defendants failed to investigate his complaints, failed to properly monitor, manage and treat him, failed to perform a cancer screening, failed to refer him to a urologist, failed to recognize the symptoms of bladder cancer and were otherwise negligent in their care and treatment. She accuses Whoolery, Detemple and Family Health Associates of medical malpractice, negligence and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress as well as blames them for loss of consortium.
She seeks compensatory damages for her and her late husband’s medical expenses, physical pain and suffering, mental pain and suffering, annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation, inconvenience, permanent scarring and disfigurement and loss of enjoyment of life.
Bell seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by Amanda J. Davis, L. Dante diTrapano and David H. Carriger of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Richard D. Lindsay of Tabor Lindsay & Associates in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-202
