Estate says doctor’s feeding tube mistake led to death

CHARLESTON – The widow of Kanawha County man says a Thomas Memorial Hospital doctor failed to properly place a feeding tube, causing her husband’s death.

Diana Moss, executrix of the estate of David Junior Moss, filed her wrongful death complaint February 19 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Dr. Mark Tarakji.

“The blatant breach of the standard of care in recklessly placing the feeding tube in the posterior wall of the stomach caused Mr. Moss’s death,” attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “This is a tragedy and the back story as to why the procedure was rushed will be further explored during discovery.”

According to the complaint, David Moss went to the emergency department of West Virginia University Medicine’s Thomas Memorial Hospital on May 28, 2024, with functional decline, generalized weakness, cough and shortness of breath. HE was admitted for monitoring and treatment of pneumonia.

While there, he failed a modified barium swallow study and was recommended NPO. He received nutrition via nasogastric tube for seven days.

On June 5, 2024, Tarakji surgically placed a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube in Moss’s abdomen as an alternate means of providing nutrition. But Moss developed abdominal tenderness, distention and significant pain over the next two days. By then, he had significantly elevated white blood cell count and impaired renal function.

Tarakji then performed an emergency exploratory laparotomy because of a “colonic injury” and “percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement related complication.”

In the surgical report, Tarakji noted he “was concerned with a malposition of the feeding percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube.” He also noted he “immediately identified the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube traversing the anterior mesenteric wall of the mid transverse colon and entering the posterior wall of the stomach.” He noted he “chose a location for a new G-tube on the anterior wall of the stomach.”

After the June 7, 2024, procedure, Moss’s condition briefly stabilized. But on June 13, 2024, he rapidly deteriorated and was pronounced dead at 4:59 a.m. The cause of death on his death certificate is pneumonia and emphysema.

But the complaint says Tarakji breached the standard of care by negligently and improperly placing the PEG tube into the posterior wall of Moss’s stomach.

The estate accuses Tarakji of medical negligence and recklessness. It seeks compensatory damages for pain and suffering, medical expenses, loss of support and companionship, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees, expenses and other relief.

The estate is represented by diTrapano, Charles F. Bellomy and Timothy D. Houston of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Dr. Richard D. Linsday of Tabor Lindsay & Associates in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 26-C-239