Wrongful Death - Article - Stabbed youth's father files suit

Stabbed Youth's Father Files Suit

Buddy knifed boy, 15; friend, mother, hospital, doctors blamed for death

By Julie Wallace

Beacon Journal staff writer

MEDINA - The father of a Wadsworth teen stabbed to death in early 2004 has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the assailant and his mother, as well as Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital and the doctors who treated him.

The suit, filed late Tuesday in Medina County Common Pleas Court by Michael Twigg, father of Matthew Twigg, contends the hospital and its doctors failed to act swiftly enough to save the 15-year-old.

The suit also faults the mother of the 16-year-old assailant, Jeffrey Rowe, for leaving him unsupervised in her home.

Rowe is serving three years in a state juvenile facility after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.

Rowe told police he stabbed Twigg with a steak knife in what he described as horseplay gone awry on Jan. 31, 2004 .

The two, along with another teen, had been smoking marijuana in the home of Rowe's mother and scuffled about who would sit in a chair, according to testimony.

Rowe said he grabbed the knife with the intent of poking Twigg in the leg so Rowe could break free from a headlock.

Later, passers-by called for help when they saw Twigg bleeding in the parking lot of a credit union next door to the South Lyman Street home where the scuffle took place.

Twigg was taken to Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital and was later flown to Akron General Medical Center . According to the suit, the knife punctured his liver and the internal bleeding it caused led to his death at the Akron hospital.

Attorney Jerome T. Linnen Jr. of Akron , representing Twigg's father, contends that Dr. David Scott of Canton, Emergency Medicine Physicians of Wadsworth Ltd. and the hospital itself took too long to seek trauma care for Twigg and thereby played a role in his death.

The suit said Carolyn Knight, Rowe's mother, was named because she left her son home alone knowing that he had problems -- court testimony indicated he'd been in trouble more than a dozen times before Twigg's death and was on probation through juvenile court at the time.

Linnen did not return a message left Wednesday at his office for comment. A hospital spokeswoman said the hospital had not received notice of the lawsuit and would wait until then to comment.

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