Florence Griffith Joyner's family sues St. Louis
hospital
(AP)
9 August 2000 - Los Angeles, California - Florence Griffith Joyner's family is suing a St.
Louis hospital, charging doctors with failing to detect a brain abnormality two years
before the three-time Olympic champion died in 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported
Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed in a Missouri court under pseudonyms, the Times said, citing sources close to the case. It accuses employees of Washington University's Barnes-Jewish Hospital of improperly interpreting the results of an MRI and other tests Griffith Joyner underwent in April 1996 when she was rushed to the hospital after suffering a seizure during a flight to St. Louis.
The 38-year-old world record holder in the women's 100 meters suffered another seizure while asleep at home in Mission Viejo in 1998. The coroner in Orange County near Los Angeles ruled that it caused her death by suffocation.
The lawsuit accused the hospital of neglecting to compare the tests Joyner received there with those she had undergone earlier and of not reviewing her medical records.
According to the action, the tests should have revealed a
medical condition in which the brain's blood vessels tighten and
cause seizures.
One of the top women sprinters in athletics history,
Griffith Joyner won three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. Her world record of 10.49
seconds for the 100 meters, set during the U.S. Olympic trials in 1988, still stands. She
also holds the three fastest times at the distance.