This Man Was Mistakenly Taken Off Life Support And Died After The Hospital Asked The Wrong Family About Him
In the summer of 2021, one Vancouver man died after he was taken off life support when he was misidentified as his hospital roommate.
This terrible case of mistaken identity at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington, allowed a family to pull the plug on the wrong man.
On August 9, 2021, 69-year-old David Wells died after the family of 60-year-old Michael Beehler, his hospital roommate, gave permission to have Beehler removed from his life support on August 8, 2021.
Wells was transported to the hospital via ambulance on August 8 after choking on a piece of steak. He lost consciousness and stopped breathing.
Wells was wrongly identified as Beehler, and the hospital contacted Debbie Danielson, Beehler’s sister, to decide if the “brain dead” patient should remain on life support.
After discussing the situation with her husband, Danielson told the hospital to take her brother off life support. She went through the grieving process for the man she thought was her brother, made funeral arrangements, and wrote his obituary for the newspaper.
“That whole week was kind of a blur. Trying to come up with funeral arrangements, letting family members know that he passed away,” Danielson said.
The misidentified body was sent to the funeral home, where they asked the Beehler family about final wishes, cremation, and organ donation.
Then, Danielson received an unexpected phone call on August 14. It was her brother, and he was alive. That evening, Beehler’s family reported the incident to authorities.
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The Clark County Medical Examiner (CCME) later retrieved the body from the funeral home and used fingerprints to confirm that he was not Beehler. Soon, the CCME notified Wells’ son, Shawn Wells, who was in California.
“They basically told me there was a medical emergency regarding my father. He had been pronounced dead,” said Shawn Wells.
According to Shawn, no one informed him about the mixup at the time—not the medical examiner, the hospital, or the funeral home. It wasn’t until 2023 that Shawn learned of the misidentification.
The Washington Department of Health conducted an investigation and found multiple violations. The hospital did not properly train staff on how to verify patient identification or have a reliable method for identifying each patient.
Currently, Shawn, Beehler, and Danielson are suing the hospital for negligence and causing severe emotional distress. They are also suing the CCME, American Medical Response Ambulance, and All County Cremation and Burial.
PeaceHealth declined to answer any questions or share any facts about the mixup due to pending litigation. As a result of the case, the CCME’s office has changed its internal policy.
Now, funeral homes, healthcare facilities, and any providers are required to let families identify their loved ones.
If family identification is not possible, the deceased will be brought to the medical examiner’s office to be identified through fingerprinting and other forms of identification.
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