Negligence

Eleven California hospitals were fined $25,000 each in administrative penalties Thursday for violations that, in some cases, led to death or serious injury, according to Department of Public Health officials. Most of the hospitals fined were in Southern California, and about half were cited because doctors or hospital staff had left foreign objects in patients after surgery. Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital in Norwalk and Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center were fined for failing to follow proper surgical procedures.

The pilot of the cargo ship that sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in November and spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel oil was charged Monday with criminal negligence and violating two federal environmental laws. Capt. John J. Cota, 60, was charged in federal court in San Francisco with one count each of violating the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, both misdemeanors. Cota was at the helm Nov.

A recently hired plumber was sent into the bowels of the Orleans hotel and casino last year to unplug a sewer pipe in a large grease trap -- an assignment that would be his last. The hotel had no permit or training program to allow plumber Richard Luzier to enter a confined space where he might inhale poisonous sewer gas. He had no breathing apparatus or emergency rescue harness -- all routine precautions. Luzier fell 12 feet and landed face down in fatty sewage.

The California Medical Board has accused the former head of UCI Medical Center's anesthesiology department of gross negligence and incompetence after he allegedly falsified records and assigned a resident to operating-room duties even though his left hand was in a cast. If the charges are upheld, Dr. Peter H. Breen, who still practices at the Orange-based hospital, could be suspended or have his license revoked.

Psychiatric Solutions Inc. was on its way to becoming the nation's leading provider of private psychiatric care when it snapped up Sierra Vista Hospital in Sacramento in mid-2005. The company put its well-honed business formula into action: Staffing fell. Beds filled up. Profits soared. It was a winning strategy for investors. But for some patients, federal records show, checking into Sierra Vista proved dangerous -- at times deadly.

BP, under pressure because of a refinery explosion that killed 15 workers, suffered from systemic safety failures, according to a report by a committee headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III. The Baker panel found fault with the handling of safety issues by upper management at London-based BP, including top executives, said a person who has seen the report and asked not to be named because it is not yet public.

The Bush administration ordered a review Tuesday of the care of wounded U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan after reports that many face neglect in the Army's medical system. Democrats controlling Congress demanded a thorough investigation and promised legislation after a Washington Post series exposed deteriorating conditions for hundreds of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the premier U.S. military hospital.

A Mustang broadsided Kathy Schroeder's Hyundai sports coupe in a Palmdale intersection, knocking her unconscious. She woke up wedged against the console, covered with an oily film. "I just remember my eyes and face burning," she said, "like bacon sizzling." She recalled telling the Los Angeles County Fire Department rescuers at the scene, but said they didn't flush her eyes. After being rolled into a private ambulance, she told the attendants too.

In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a complainer. "Thanks a lot, officers," an emergency room nurse told Los Angeles County police who brought in Rodriguez early May 9 after finding her in front of the Willowbrook hospital yelling for help. "This is her third time here." The 43-year-old mother of three had been released from the emergency room hours earlier, her third visit in three days for abdominal pain.

A 43-year-old woman who writhed in pain for 45 minutes on the emergency room lobby floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital died of a perforated bowel, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said late Friday. Neither hospital staff nor other patients attempted to assist her as she lay dying.