A 21-year-old woman died after being admitted to a Connecticut hospital for a broken ankle, with her family now suing over the care she received. Dale Alice Martin, a student from Manhattan, was treated at Waterbury Hospital in April 2025 after fracturing her ankle while doing farm work. A court heard she was given a combination of drugs that left her brain-dead.
Family alleges hospital failings
Lindsay Martin, Dale's father, told a local news outlet that his daughter had no choice in where she was treated, and that the family only learned after her death that the hospital was "bankrupt." He said: "We didn’t know till after Dale’s death that she was admitted to a bankrupt hospital that was under investigation, where nurses allegedly were buying food for patients, where the level of funding was so constrained that the hospital may not have been able to function properly."
An autopsy determined that Dale died from cardiac arrest after being given multiple painkillers, according to the suit filed by family lawyer Christopher Mattei. The lawsuit noted: "Within 14 hours of admission, providers at the hospital had administered so much pain medication that Dale stopped breathing and later died." It added that no one checked on the 21-year-old during that time.
No help possible as she suffocated
The filing also explained that "The same medications that were interfering with Dale’s breathing were also sedating her. Dale could not even call for help as she suffocated." A nurse checked on Dale at 7am on April 10, but by then her heart had already stopped beating. Dale's father recalled the harrowing phone call from the hospital when she passed away, saying he "hung up the phone" in shock.
The family had been unaware of the issues with the hospital, which was previously owned by California-based Prospect Medical Holdings, a company that filed for bankruptcy in January 2025. UConn Health officially took over ownership and operations on March 1, 2026.
Lawyer points to systemic neglect
The family's lawyer said: "What we expect to find is that this was a hospital that was largely operating on fumes as a result of Prospect dismantling infrastructure within the hospital, reducing staff, training, and finding every way possible to extract value out of the hospital in a way that jeopardized care." The Express has contacted Waterbury Hospital and Prospect Medical Holdings for a comment.
