As reported by the Philly Inquirer, an incident began when a husband was being poisoned by his wife. Complicating the matter is the allegation that a hospital missed detecting it, and continued to allow her access to him, until it was too late.
Beyond that, the case is even more complex - the allegedly "erratic" wife worked for a pharmaceutical company and was granted access to poisons.
The family of the now deceased man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and the University Medical Center of Princeton, for negligence contributing to his death.
X.W., 40, died less than four months ago. His wife, T.L., 39, has been charged with his murder.
T.L. was a chemist for BMS and her husband, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, worked as a software engineer.
Per the suit, filed by Philadelphia lawyer Brian Fritz, the couple met at Penn, married and have a two-year old son. Their divorce was due to be finalized this last January.
The couple had lived apart until recently - X.W. had moved to an apartment New York - but were sharing in the care of their son when X.W. returned to their Monroe home.
Allegedly X.W. had told his family - most of which reside in China - of his marital problems and, though his wife had threatened him, he had it all managed.
On the day the divorce was to be made final, January 14, X.W., entered the emergency room at University Medical Center. He had chief complaints of abdominal pain, hand numbness and feet numbness.
Doctors were allegedly puzzled and he was admitted.
X.W. told doctors that be believed that his wife had been poisoning him. Even after reporting that she had threatened him with this, doctors rebuked the idea believing their patient to be paranoid.
During this time T.L. was allowed to visit her husband in the hospital.
Four days later, thallium - a chemical formerly used as rat poison and banned from consumer purchase back in the 1970s - had shown up on his urine test.
X.W. continued to complain to doctors that his wife was poisoning him - but she was still granted access to him by hospital staff.
No one contacted the police on behalf of X.W. to report his allegations.
Another five days passed - it was now January 23 - and X.W. began foaming at the mouth, became unresponsive, and though an internist then made a call to poison control - he died on January 24.
BMS uses thallium for medical purposes and authorities allege that T.L. signed out for several bottles.
Fritz said, "BMS deserves to be held responsible because it was the source of the murder weapon. Based on their own records, BMS knew that (T.L.) had displayed erratic and threatening behavior in the workplace."
The suit alleges that there is documentation from T.L.'s co-workers stating that she had displayed uncontrollable anger. It is also alleged that the company not only failed to monitor the chemical, they also failed to restrict T.L.'s access to it.
Loosing a loved one can be doubly painful in the case of a wrongful death. Contact a personal injury lawyer to assist you in seeking compensation.