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American Morning

False Death Report

Aired September 16, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. That is how Mark Twain responded when he learned that a newspaper has mistakenly run his own obituary, early. No joke, though, for Martha and Ben Weaver of Camarillo, California when the hospital called Martha at home and told her that Ben had died. The hospital called the wrong family and now the Weavers are suing.
From L.A. this morning, Martha Weaver and her husband, Ben, who is very much alive this morning, and their attorney, Greg Johnson, who is with us along as well.

Good morning to all of you.

To the Weavers first. Martha, take me back to the middle of the night when you received that phone call. Give us a sense of what you were feeling and thinking.

MARTHA WEAVER, WAS TOLD HUSBAND HAD DIED: It was about 2:00, and I was sound asleep. At the moment I had been sleeping fitfully, but at that moment, I was asleep. The phone rang, and I thought possibly it was our son who is over in the Gulf area stationed on a ship. And so I picked up the phone, and I was totally unprepared for what I heard.

The person identified herself as a person from the hospital, a nurse from the hospital, and she said I'm calling to let you know that your husband has just passed away. He died peacefully in his sleep, and we did not have time to call you before he passed away.

HEMMER: So it took you about 45 minutes to get to the hospital, is that right? You walk in there, and then what?

WEAVER: We walked in and got permission to go inside the hospital itself, into the intensive care unit, and when we went in the intensive care unit, our daughter and I went in together -- she had been with me the entire time -- so she and I walked in, walked straight ahead and turned to the right where the nursing station -- nurse's station was, and the nurse who was my husband's nurse, stood up and came toward us very quickly, and she said, oh, my God, I called the wrong family, your husband is alive, he is going to be OK.

HEMMER: Oh, my. Your reaction then Martha was what? You walk into his room, and he is sleeping in his bed, I understand. Tell us.

WEAVER: We had -- there were three nurses there at the time. And one of the nurses took us down, asked us if we would like to go in where he was, and we said, no, we didn't want it walk him. We just wanted to be sure that he was alive. So she opened this glass door, rolled the glass door open, and we stood there, and the absolute most wonderful thing in the world happened, and that is that my husband was snoring, and it was just absolutely beautiful music, beautiful music.

HEMMER: Ben, you snore?

BEN WEAVER, HOSPITAL SAID HE DIED: Oh, very good, quite loudly sometimes.

HEMMER: Listen, I know they let you sleep into the morning, and when you woke up and they told you the story, and you said to Martha what at that point?

B. WEAVER: I knew they weren't making it up. It was just really very hard it believe. I couldn't imagine anything like that happening. It is still sometimes is hard it believe. It should never have happened.

HEMMER: I want to bring in the attorney here for a moment here, and I also want it bring in, as we talk to Greg Johnson here, a statement from the hospital saying, and quoting now, "We deeply regret this ever happened. We are taking steps to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. When we recognize what happened, we provided the family with the correct information, and apologize from this unfortunate incident." Unfortunate indeed. That's the statement from the hospital.

I know, Mr. Johnson, there is a suit out there right now. What do you think it'll accomplish?

GREG JOHNSON, WEAVER'S ATTORNEY: I hope we will continue to learn about how something like it happened. One of the things that we learned right off the bat was that this was a registry nurse, and that this is a temporary position for her, and the nursing experts who are fighting a battle that is not ours, who told us this is the function of the fact that the temporary registry nurses are not as well trained.

HEMMER: And that's the basis for your suit.

I'm just wondering, what do you think is going to get accomplished right now? The hospital said they're sorry. Ben is OK. He was just napping. You take this to make what point?

JOHNSON: I take this to -- on behalf of the Weavers. They want to make sure that this never happens to anyone again. And I think one of the ways to do that, again, is to find out exactly how it happened. Obviously, we are in civil court. The other thing I'm trying do is get this family reasonably and fairly compensated for a what they went through. And this is an emotional injury, but it's a real one.

HEMMER: Let me put the legal issue aside, 15 seconds. Martha and Ben, how have you been acting toward each other lately?

B. WEAVER: Been very happy to see each other. We always have been. We are happy to have celebrated our 38th anniversary. HEMMER: That's wonderful. Good of you to be with us today, early in L.A., but thanks again. Greg Johnson, the attorney. Martha and Ben Weaver, reunited, and it feels so good.

Thanks, guys.

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