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First Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Clinic

Aaron Drawhorn, Reporter Las Vegas Now March 20, 2008

A local woman says the clinic at the center of the hepatitis C scare is responsible for her husband's death. The Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada is accused of putting some 40,000 lives in danger by reusing dirty syringes and medical vials.

Doctors had no idea how James Cromwell contracted hepatitis C, a disease that killed him, until they got a letter in January telling him to get tested. Now his wife is suing for wrongful death.

This is believed to be the first wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with the health scare.

The family is confident their loved one's appointments at the Endoscopy Center amounted to a death sentence.

"It was very emotional. All I could do was cry," said Janice Cromwell. She misses her husband, James Ray, every day.

"He loved life. We always talked about growing old together," she said.

Ray, as she called him, was her companion -- her backbone. A loving father and longtime worker at the Tropicana, Ray had battled health problems before, but the family believes one of his treatments at the Endoscopy Center was what eventually killed him.

The wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit alleges Ray contracted hepatitis C at the Endoscopy Center. Janice says his blood work never showed hepatitis C before he visited the clinic.

"He told me he was dying, but I waited until he told me before I could tell him that I know he was dying," she said.

It was a painful time for Janice. She had no idea how her husband of 34 years suddenly contracted a deadly disease.

A month after the disturbing discovery, Ray passed away. The cause on Ray's death certificate is liver disease secondary to hepatitis C.

"For you to have another week, year, five years for your loved one, how do you put a price on that? You really can't," she said.

Janice knows the lawsuit won't bring Ray back, but she wants the doctor at the center of it all to be brought to justice.

"You think I don't want him to pay? I want him to pay," she said.

James Ray Cromwell passed away in May 2006 at the age of 60. He left behind a wife, four children and four grandchildren. His widow plans to file a police report, hoping the DA charges the clinic's doctor with second degree murder.