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Questions Persist Over Hospital Death: Family Offers Reward After Investigations Yield Little

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Apr. 5--The circumstances surrounding a woman's death at a St. Paul hospital last year, which her family called suspicious and asked police to investigate, remain a mystery.

The Ramsey County medical examiner's office has ruled Olivia Geller's death at St. Joseph's Hospital undetermined, and the status of the police case is being changed from an active investigation to pending, police spokesman Pete Crum said Tuesday.

"We simply don't have enough information to make a definitive judgment on the manner of death," said Don Gorrie, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office. "We don't know enough about what happened in the room."

Geller was admitted to the downtown hospital Nov. 5 with pneumonia and died Nov. 12 after apparently falling in her room.

The 79-year-old's family still hopes to find out how Geller fell and is offering a reward for information.

"Our family is still very traumatized by the circumstances surrounding our mother's death," said Linda Axelrod, Geller's daughter. "She went into the hospital with pneumonia, and she died from a subdural hematoma. … She was a wonderful mother, grandmother and wife. We miss her dearly. It's not the way you should lose your mother."

Because the medical examiner's office wasn't notified when Geller died and was unable to investigate the death as it would have under normal circumstances, the office took the rare move in January of exhuming Geller's body. The office conducted an autopsy and has ruled the cause of death to be closed-head trauma, Gorrie said.

The medical examiner's office classifies deaths as homicide, suicide, accident, natural or undetermined.

If new information ever arises, investigators would take up the case again, Crum said.

"We're always hoping to change the manner of death from undetermined," Gorrie said.

The hospital continues to express its sympathy to Geller's family, said Anne Sonnee, spokeswoman for HealthEast Care System, of which St. Joseph's is a member.

"We did conduct our own investigation immediately after the death of Mrs. Geller, and we still stand by the findings of that investigation, that this was an unfortunate accidental patient fall," she said.

When Geller was admitted to the hospital, she was in a weakened state and couldn't get out of bed without help, according to an affidavit for a search warrant to obtain the St. Paul woman's medical records, filed in Ramsey County District Court in December.

A nurse found Geller lying on the floor near her bed Nov. 11. She had blood in her oxygen mask, cuts and bruises that a detective said were possible defensive wounds, and her hospital gown was on the other side of the room, according to the affidavit, which also described recent reports of trespassers at the hospital. She died the next day.

The Minnesota Health Department, which investigates complaints against hospitals, doesn't comment about whether a hospital is under investigation.

Family offers reward

Olivia Geller's family is offering a $2,500 reward "for credible information about what or who caused our mother's fall," said Linda Axelrod, Geller's daughter. Call Axelrod with information at 651-688-6699.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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