Anaheim Police, Hospitals Sued Over Wound Treatment

SANTA ANA â€”  A woman who sat in jail for 36 hours with a bullet lodged in her head has filed a lawsuit against the Anaheim Police Department and hospitals in Santa Ana and Anaheim, alleging it has left her disabled.

Nancy Gilmore Brown, 31, was arrested on suspicion of murder the night of June 30, 1995, at an Anaheim motel room, where her boyfriend had been shot to death.

Anaheim police found Brown bleeding from a head wound at the scene of the crime, speaking slowly and with a slur, records show. Police have maintained that they called paramedics, who took Brown directly to a hospital, where she refused treatment and an exam.

But in a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court this week, Brown alleges that officers took her directly to jail and did not furnish medical treatment until July 2.

Brown’s attorney, Wilma R. Shanks, said whether Brown declined treatment “is not an issue� and therefore is not addressed.

“If they observed Nancy Brown and determined that it’s very possible she had a gunshot to her brain--and after all, they were there to investigate a shooting--they had a duty to provide medical care, right there on the spot,� Shanks said.

According to police, Brown told officers she hit her head ducking a bottle that boyfriend Richard Lewis had thrown in the motel room where they lived.

She refused treatment by paramedics at the scene and then refused treatment again at Western Medical Center-Anaheim, police have said.

The lawsuit “negates the fact that all the way along, she consciously declined medical treatment,� Anaheim Police Lt. Ted Labahn said. “As long as you make a conscious decision as an informed human being and you appear to be coherent and rational, you can make that choice.�

Brown’s mother, Betty Scott, said at the time that her daughter might have been too impaired by her injury to realize its seriousness, and that the police and hospital staff should have insisted on treating her sooner.

According to the lawsuit, family members who visited Brown in jail noticed that her clothing was bloodied, her head was noticeably swollen and her right eye was protruding from its socket.

Officials took her to Western Medical Center-Anaheim by the afternoon of July 2 because her condition did not appear to be improving, the police chief said at the time. She was transferred to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana eight hours later and underwent surgery to remove the bullet.

The lawsuit alleges that both hospitals “negligently performed bullet and bullet fragments extraction surgery to plaintiff’s brain,� resulting in “loss of sensation, partial paralysis, severe memory loss, permanent and severe neurological impairment, etc.�

Shanks said both hospitals are named because the chain of events remains unclear. Brown is still undergoing physical therapy, she said.

Hospital officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

What exactly happened in Room 277 of Anaheim’s El Dorado Inn remains a mystery.

Friends and family said that Brown and Lewis, 30, had been quarreling earlier in the day. Neighbors heard a scream, then saw Brown emerge from the room shortly afterward with blood on her face. Although she was arrested on suspicion of murder, officials did not pursue charges against her once her wound became apparent.