The family of slain New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum has reached a settlement with Howard University Hospital, members of his family said Thursday.
Rosenbaum was taken to Howard after he was attacked and beaten with a pipe in Northwest D.C. in January 2006, but was not seen by a doctor for more than 90 minutes and did not receive a neurological evaluation for almost four hours, a lawsuit filed by his son and daughter alleged. He died of a brain injury two days later.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but WTOP reported that it was multimillion-dollar.
“I’m still concerned that Howard hasn’t fixed all of its problems because Ihaven’t seen any evidence that they have,” David’s brother Marcus Rosenbaum told The Examiner. “What happened to my brother showed that they made horrible mistakes and they ought to make sure that those kind of things won’t happen again.”
In March of this year, Rosenbaum’s family agreed to drop a $20 million lawsuit against the District for its bungled emergency response if the city agreed to set up a task force to evaluate shortcomings in its system and implemented changes within one year.
When D.C. emergency responders found Rosenbaum, they failed to notice his head wound and mistakenly treated him as a drunk.
A June 2006 report by the D.C. inspector general cited “alarming levels of complacency and indifference” among the city’s responders to Rosenbaum and called for more oversight and enhanced internal controls within the city’s fire and police departments.
The task force, which included Rosenbaum’s son-in-law Toby Halliday, D.C. officials and specialists, issued a report to the city this September that recommended increased training and oversight in the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
In March, the city’s time will run out and the Rosenbaum family will determine whether the city has implemented appropriate changes.
“I think the family’s decision about whether the city has made adequate process – it’s frankly something we haven’t discussed much at this point,” Halliday said.
