Lawsuits combined in Crazy Horse descendent’s death

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – Wrongful death lawsuits filed after a decedent of Crazy Horse died of a heart attack have been combined by a federal judge, moving forward a case surrounding the man credited with protecting the legacy of the American Indian warrior.

The suits filed by Darlene Big Crow accuse a doctor and nurse at the Indian Health Services hospital on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota of twice not recognizing that her husband, Seth Big Crow Sr., was having a heart attack in 2007.

Seth Big Crow, an estate administer, fought off companies that tried to commercially use the Crazy Horse name in a way he said disrespected the Oglala Lakota Indian warrior. Crazy Horse led the defeat of Lt. Col. George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876, and his image is being carved into a Black Hills mountain to honor American Indians.

Darlene Big Crow sued Dr. George Mathew, a government contract employee, in state court and later filed a lawsuit against U.S. government in federal court. A judge agreed to combine the lawsuits in an order dated Sept. 18.

The move simplified the case, though a trial hasn’t been scheduled.

“We deny that he was negligent and I think the facts will bear that out once it’s tried,” Mathew’s attorney, Mark Haigh, said Friday.

Prosecutors and other attorneys in the cases were either out of the office Friday or did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The suits accuse the doctor and nurse, whose full name wasn’t listed in court documents, of failing to recognize that Seth Big Crow had symptoms consistent with a heart attack during two visits to the hospital in January 2007.

Despite having numbness and a loss of control of his left arm, slurred speech and facial droop, he was discharged after spending about three hours at the hospital on Jan. 12. He was told to return if his condition worsened, according to court documents.

The Big Crows returned six days later when he had chest pains and what felt like severe heartburn. The nurse reported the symptoms to Mathew, who prescribed a gastrointestinal cocktail for indigestion but did nothing else, the lawsuits allege.

Darlene Big Crow indicated she was worried her husband was having a heart attack, was having trouble breathing and was in too much pain to stay in the emergency room, but the nurse told her Mathew was busy and gave him another cocktail, according to the documents.

After waiting more than two hours to see a doctor, the couple went home. Seth Big Crow died hours later from a heart attack.

The 68-year-old had been a diabetic, smoked cigarettes, had heart disease and had previously suffered a stroke.

The lawsuits claim medical negligence because Mathew failed to provide reasonable care and didn’t examine Seth Big Crow or his records, didn’t order the appropriate tests and misdiagnosed his condition.

The nurse breached her duty by not recognizing he was having a heart attack, not giving him oxygen or other treatment, not telling Mathew the urgency of his condition and not calling another doctor, according to the complaint against the government.

The lawsuits seek financial damages from Mathew and the government. The state lawsuit was first filed in 2008, and the federal lawsuit came earlier this year.

In a recent response filed by prosecutors, the government denied claims of negligence, indicated it does not have enough information to comment on the validity of some of the claims, denied that Darlene Big Crow is entitled to any relief and stated that a jury trial is not allowed under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

As estate administrator, Seth Big Crow protected Crazy Horse’s name, which he felt was being disrespected.

In 2001, SBC Holdings Inc. settled a lawsuit and chairman John W. Stroh III apologized for the company’s use of Crazy Horse on malt liquor. Hornell Brewing settled a similar lawsuit in 2004. In 2002, representatives of British Petroleum apologized for use of the name on an oil project.