Educator’s Family Settles Suit With Hospital, Doctors
The family of community college Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin has settled its medical malpractice suit with a Thousand Oaks hospital and six doctors who treated Lakin in the hours before his death last year from the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, a judge said Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge William L. Peck said the settlement was reached last week. Terms of the legal agreement were kept confidential.
Lakin’s widow, Karen Lakin, and her four daughters filed the suit earlier this year against Los Robles Medical Center and doctors Darrell L. Davey, Alister A. George, John Larsen, Mark Mazur, Richard Midthun and Russell Nelson. The suit alleged that the doctors and the hospital made wrong decisions and failed to diagnose the condition, known as necrotizing fasciitis, in time to save Lakin’s life.
Lakin died Nov. 27. He went to Los Robles two days before his death from the fast-spreading bacterial infection, but after he was admitted, doctors did not diagnose his condition for hours.
All parties declined to discuss the case.
Lakin, a 50-year-old marathon runner at the time of his death, was the chancellor of the three-campus Ventura County Community College District.
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