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Family Sues Cincinnati Surgery Center in Rachel Tussey’s Death After Tummy Tuck

Newly released 911 audio highlights concerns about how staff handled her post-surgery crisis.

Overview

  • Jeremy Tussey filed a negligence lawsuit Thursday in Hamilton County that names JourneyLite of Cincinnati, Associated Anesthesiologists of Springfield and several nurses.
  • The complaint alleges a nurse gave 150 micrograms of fentanyl and 0.5 milligrams of Dilaudid within 30 minutes after surgery, which it says caused opioid toxicity and six minutes without oxygen to her brain.
  • According to the filing, doctors at Bethesda North Hospital ruled out surgical complications and attributed her death to anoxic brain injury after an overdose and acute respiratory failure.
  • A 911 call obtained by WLWT captures a nurse reporting Tussey was not breathing and telling the dispatcher the team would wait for responders rather than take medical instructions.
  • The suit also accuses the center of systemic safety failures, saying nurses lacked the post-anesthesia airway training that Ohio law requires, and it follows an earlier, separate lawsuit by her surgeon.