Lawsuit says veterans center improperly inflated catheter, caused man's death

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Staff at a Kansas City veteran's medical center caused a man to contract a blood infection and die after improperly inflating a catheter, according to a federal lawsuit filed by his widow.

The lawsuit alleges 52-year-old Gilbert Harris visited the Kansas City VA Medical Center in 2016 for neurogenic bladder, a condition causing the bladder to become overactive or underactive. Harris was seen at the center, where a medical provider removed his catheter and inserted a new one. But by the time he returned to his nursing home that evening, he had a fever and "large amounts of blood and clotting" in his genitalia. Harris was quickly taken the Nevada Regional Medical Center in southwest Missouri, where he was diagnosed with an acute urinary tract infection and sepsis, a blood infection.

Harris then returned to the veteran's center, where a CT scan found the catheter had been inflated within the penile urethra instead of his bladder, according to the lawsuit. The catheter was quickly replaced, but Harris went into septic shock and died days later.

The lawsuit was filed Friday by Harris' widow, Patricia, who seeks unspecified damage for her losing his companionship and for the physical and mental pain her husband suffered before he died.