Man’s Wife Met An Early Demise, Then He Noticed Hospital Staff Acting ‘Off’

As an asthmatic, Laura always carried an inhaler. She was cautious in treating her symptoms and knew how to manage them while maintaining an active lifestyle. As a passionate weight-lifter and hiker who worked out six days a week, she had a handle on living life with asthma. So when she woke up experiencing an asthma attack, she knew what to do.

Thankfully, Laura’s apartment was conveniently located right near Somerville Hospital. So, she decided to walk there. She had to know the severity of her attack, but she probably thought she’d get her usual nebulizer treatment and a dose of the medication prednisone and feel good as new. She believed she had enough time to reach help on foot. What could go wrong?

Laura did everything right in her search for medical assistance. She climbed the hill up to the hospital on foot and at some point, she dialed 911. Somewhere during her attempt to reach help, her asthma attack crossed over from a minor issue to a life-threatening problem. Despite her proximity, the help she needed never arrived.

Laura Beth Levis died at age 34, a few days after her fateful walk to the hospital. Her husband Peter was heartbroken that something so treatable became fatal in Laura’s case. In his grief, he didn’t question the events that led up to her hospitalization. In fact, he left the experience feeling grateful for the hospital staff.

DeMarco was so touched by the way the Somerville Hospital staff had treated him, his wife, and their family in her final days that he wrote a letter thanking them that was published in the New York Times. He used his reach as a journalist to sing their praises, but he soon found out everything he knew was a lie.

Five weeks after Laura’s death, the circumstances still didn’t sit right with her uncle Robert Levis. He called the Somerville Police, who don’t normally make reports regarding medical calls, but they felt compelled to help. They interviewed the first responders and gathered evidence, stringing together a report. When the family received the report, the tragic truth was impossible to deny.

Initially, the hospital staff told Peter that Laura was found some distance away from the hospital, which was the reason she wasn’t found in time to be saved. Looking over the police report, it was apparent the staff had lied.

Laura had indeed made it to the hospital. In fact, she made it all the way to an entrance door. But it was locked and the security desk on the other side was empty. The grim revelations didn’t end there.

Peter wrote dozens of letters and made many phone calls in order to obtain the hospital surveillance footage. Ultimately he got his hands on the tape that showed Laura had reached the locked ambulance entrance to the ER, saw no one, and could only make it to the bench about 30 feet from the public ER entrance. Sitting there, she called 911.

Laura managed to tell the 911 dispatcher where she was and the seriousness of her situation through labored breaths, twice. Finally, they were able to contact a nurse at the ER to go check outside. From surveillance footage, the nurse stayed by the door and merely shifted her head around. In the early morning hours, she failed to notice Laura collapsed on the bench.

The nurse never alerted the security guards about the matter. She didn’t walk outside to see if anyone needed help outside the glow of the entrance light. Instead, the nurse told the 911 dispatcher she saw nothing. By then, Laura couldn’t respond to the dispatcher, so they tracked the location of her cell phone and made another critical error.

In an unforeseen technical error, Laura’s cell phone pinged a tower about 200 feet away from the hospital, when she was actually much closer. The Somerville Fire Department took critical minutes to search the wrong area, though they eventually spotted Laura near the ER entrance and immediately began CPR. Sadly, they were too late.

A police officer on the scene noted in his report noted the lack of response when he tried to alert someone inside the ER, “I started to bang on the glass with my ring and from in the back I heard someone yell, ‘Relax’ in a very [annoyed] tone, and then as she turned the corner and saw me she said, ‘Take it easy’ in that same annoyed tone.”

The only conclusion Peter and his family could draw was that several people had failed Laura and it resulted in her death. He went to Lubin & Meyer, a prominent medical malpractice firm, knowing that a successful settlement couldn’t bring his wife back but it would hold the hospital responsible and prevent further tragedies. He wanted to fight for Laura.

It looked like the government was on Peter DeMarco’s side, at first. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health found violations and so did the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, charging Somerville Hospital with 90K in fines. But their hands were tied from doing much more. Massachusetts law protected hospital staff and prevented fines over 100K in wrongful death suits. Peter felt deflated.

Feeling hopeless, Peter knew something still had to be done. No one else should have to suffer like Laura did when one-minute delays in emergency response are responsible for thousands of deaths a year. With a lawsuit off the table, he wondered, what could he do to save even just one life? How do you change the system?

Peter turned to legislation. “Laura’s Law,” would ensure closer inspection and monitoring of hospital entrances, in addition to proper signage and lighting. If passed, it would be the first of its kind. By the closing days of the legislative session in early January 2021, it was looking like they had a 50/50 chance of passing Laura’s Law.

The state representatives and bill sponsors let Peter know that if they wanted a win, they were going to need to make a lot of noise. Family and friends turned to everyone they could to flood the State House with phone calls and emails asking their representatives to vote in support. Their action worked. On January 5th, Laura’s Law passed.

Peter and his in-laws attended the social distanced ceremony where MA Governor Baker signed Laura’s Law. It felt like a victory that in Laura’s absence, they were able to fight to ensure others wouldn’t suffer the same tragic fate. They learned a harrowing lesson about the medical system and how your trust shouldn’t always lie in the professionals.

Even when Peter spilled his thanks to the nurses and doctors in the New York Times, none of the staff of the hospital confided in him the truth of Laura’s preventable death. The most qualified and caring medical professionals can still be capable of prioritizing their own interests, even to a criminal degree.