Medical Examiner Investigating Death Of Grandmother At Coney Island Hospital

A grieving family is demanding answers from the medical examiner about whether Coney Island Hospital caused the death of a 47-year-old grandmother by botching her diagnosis, the Daily News reports.

The woman, Grisel Soto, arrived at the hospital on January 31. She was holding her head, screaming and couldn’t speak, the woman’s husband told the Daily News.

Even though the husband, Jorge Matos, said he’d never seen his wife take illegal drugs and told hospital staff she was on antibiotics, a triage nurse treated Soto as if she was reacting to synthetic marijuana, according to the Daily News. She was injected with a tranquilizer and her legs and arms were restrained. She died of cardiac arrest the next morning, the Daily News reports.

A spokesperson for the chief medical examiner’s office told the Daily News that Soto’s death is under investigation. Matos said his wife had been suffering from flu-like symptoms and an ear infection the previous week and suspects his wife may have been had meningitis, the Daily News reports.

In a statement, Coney Island Hospital (NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island), said: “We are committed to giving quality care to each one of our patients. However, we cannot comment because of patient confidentiality.”

Matos told the Daily News that his wife spent her final hours at the hospital gasping for air. He said she never saw a doctor and only blood and urine samples were taken from her by hospital staff.

“They killed my wife,” he reportedly said. “They basically tied her up and killed her.”

The couple was finalizing plans to adopt two young daughters of Matos’ adult son. She will be cremated and her ashes scattered in the ocean near the family’s home in Sea Gate, the Daily News reports.