Family sues city in wrongful death claim

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BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star

The mother of a Lincoln woman who died after an asthma episode at her home is suing the city in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Rita Choquette, the mother of  Emy C. Choquette, claims city emergency medical staff who were dispatched to the residence failed to, among other things, timely begin appropriate medical procedures  on her daughter.

Emy Choquette, 28, never fully regained consciousness after the Aug. 10 episode, according to the lawsuit. She died Aug. 14.

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The lawsuit, filed last week in Lancaster County District Court by Omaha attorney David Domina, names as defendants the city of Lincoln, Lancaster County and six emergency medical technicians. The technicians’ names were unknown to the plaintiff at the time of the filing.

According to the lawsuit, Emy Choquette began to feel ill the evening of Aug. 10. When medication and a nebulizer failed to relieve her symptoms, she administered to herself two injections of another prescribed medication, the lawsuit stated.

In the meantime, Emy Choquette’s sister, who was at the home at the time, dialed 911. Emergency medical staff arrived about six minutes later, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, the staff failed to take prompt medical action and did not seek a “meaningful” medical history of the ill woman from her sister. Emy Choquette, in the throes of a medical emergency, was unable to speak, the lawsuit said.

“Rather than promptly initiating medical care, the EMTs delayed, stood around Emy, but did not assist her, and Emy slowly asphyxiated before them,” the lawsuit alleged.

When the staff finally took action, according to the lawsuit, it was “too late.”

Emy Choquette slipped into unconsciousness a short time later, and never fully regained consciousness, the lawsuit said.

Domina filed the lawsuit Friday under the Political Subdivision Torts Claim Act. The lawsuit does not include a specific damage amount, although Domina is challenging the constitutionality of the $1 million limit on damages under the act.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the cap’s legality, most recently in 2003.

But Domina said in an interview Wednesday he is challenging the limit on due process grounds. Earlier challenges, he said, were based on equal protection arguments.

Attorneys for the city could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Domina challenged the limit earlier this year on behalf of Deborah Chinnow, of Adams, who is suing the city of Lincoln for more than $10 million on behalf of her daughter, Jena Van Groningen.

Van Groningen has been in a coma since she was hit by a Lincoln police cruiser while crossing the road near 48th and C streets in November 2006.

Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn ruled in April that Chinnow could not simultaneously file a claim under the act and challenge its constitutionality.

But even if allowed, the judge said, the challenge would fail. He said the Nebraska Supreme Court has held that the capping of damages is a legislative function.

Reach Clarence Mabin at 473-7234 or cmabin@journalstar.com.