Bill Paxton’s Family Reach Settlement in Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Bill Paxton’s family has finally reached a settlement with the hospital where the actor passed away in 2017. Paxton’s family sued the hospital where Paxton died in 2018, asserting that he should not have passed away during his heart surgery. According to a report by Detroit News, that lawsuit was settled on Friday.

“The matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” the family’s lawyers, Bruce Broillet and Steve Heimberg said in a public statement. The terms of the settlement were kept confidential by mutual agreement, and the defendants’ representatives did not issue a public statement of their own. The settlement still needs formal approval from a judge, and it is still not the final step in this prolonged process.

Paxton died on Feb. 25, 2017 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California after undergoing heart surgery. He suffered a stroke 11 days after the procedure due to complications with the process. Afterward, his family sued several parties for his “wrongful death,” including the hospital, the lead surgeon and the General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership.

The lawsuit against the anesthesiologists was settled earlier this year, and with the hospital settled as well that leaves only the lawsuit against Dr. Ali Khoynezhad. In their initial filings, Paxton’s family argued that Khoynezhad steered them towards a “high risk and unconventional surgical approach” to Paxton’s malady and that he did not have the experience to perform it.

The defendant has argued in court that Paxton and his family were thoroughly warned of the dangers before heading into this surgery and that they all went into the process willingly. The ensuing court battle has dredged up mounds of evidence from the hospital, which was sued because the family argued that it had prior knowledge of Khoynezhad’s tendency to “engage in maverick surgeries and show suboptimal judgment.”

As for the anesthesiologist group, it maintained that it had no direct responsibility for Paxton’s death. However, it agreed to “reasonably compensate plaintiffs and avoid exposing the defendant to an expensive and time-consuming litigation.”

Paxton’s death shocked fans, friends and colleagues alike all over the world. He was remembered as a collaborative colleague and a kind friend by many in the weeks that followed. At the time of this writing, it’s not clear what comes next in his family’s lawsuit against Khoynezhad.