The death of Lynne Spalding at San Francisco General Hospital leaves more questions than answers

By Chellie Cervone - Posted: Dec 21, 2013 at 12:35 pm

Lynne Spalding died after being locked in a stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital

Lynne Spalding (Photo: Facebook)

The death of Lynne Spalding at San Francisco General Hospital

SAN FRANCISCO — The mysterious death of Lynne Spalding Ford at San Francisco General Hospital still leaves many questions unanswered.

Spalding, 57, was admitted to the hospital for treatment of a urinary tract infection on Sept. 19.

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Two days later, after being checked on by the nursing staff, she was gone.

Family and friends mounted a “FIND LYNNE” campaign.

They just could not understand how Spalding simply vanished and assumed that the hospital grounds were thoroughly checked.

On Sept. 30, the hospital released a statement,

Post by FIND LYNNE.

Despite a report on Oct. 4 that a hospital employee reportedly saw a person collapsed in the stairwell, the stairwell was not checked nor was an extensive search conducted.

According to the family’s Facebook page,

Dr. Critchfield (of San Francisco General) reported that on Friday, October 4 at 7:17am a man knocked frantically on the door of stairwell number 8. This resulted in “a senior person” / woman opening the door at which point the person who had knocked said that “there is someone lying on the stairwell between the 3rd and 4th floors.

The Huffington Post reports that a hospital spokeswoman said the witness is a University of California San Francisco researcher who was interviewed by authorities.

On Oct. 8 in the very same stairwell that someone reported seeing a body, a body was found and the next day an official statement was released confirming that Spalding was dead.

Family disputes autopsy report regarding the death of Lynne Spalding

The medical examiner’s officer released their findings and said that Spalding died from a chemical imbalance and delirium that was brought on by an infection which were both related to chronic alcohol abuse.

Family friends say that it is not true.

Attorney Haig Harris referred to the comments about alcoholism as a, “cheap shot and a nonmedical one at that”, insisting that although the British woman drank wine that the cause of her death was starvation and dehydration.

It seems that if an appropriate, complete search of hospital grounds was immediately conducted, Spalding, whether she was disoriented or not, or simply found locked herself in the stairwell while attempting to leave the hospital, would have been discovered before she died.