SAN ANTONIO — Attorneys Tom Crosley and Andy Rodriguez of Crosby Law Firm in San Antonio and Jeff Embry of Hossley & Embry in Tyler are representing Mr. Joseph Kalina, 58, one of the seven victims named in the investigation against William Davis, the ex-nurse charged with murder earlier this week.
Davis was employed by the CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System and was assigned to the Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital since 2013. He was arrested and charged with murder on April 11, in connection with the death of Chris Greenaway, and police say he may be responsible for up to seven incidents total while employed at the hospital.
"We want to know what the hospital knew and when they knew it," Crosley said. "Our client was the seventh patient listed on the arrest warrant and this went on for seven months," Crosley said in an interview with the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
On three different occasions starting in August 2017, Davis entered the room of a patient to whom he was not assigned and performed an “unskilled and/or unnecessary and/or inappropriate” intervention for the patient, according to the formal charges brought before the Texas Board of Nursing.
In every situation, shortly after his intervention the patient’s condition immediately deteriorated from a stable condition and resuscitative measures were required. The first patient died and two others entered persistently vegetative states.
Mr. Joseph Kalina is one of the patients, according to the law firm's press release.
Crosley said Kalina was traveling through East Texas when he started having symptoms of a heart attack.
"He went to a hospital in Mount Pleasant where he was diagnosed and then transferred to the heart hospital in Tyler," Cosley said. "He had heart surgery shortly after getting to Tyler. He was communicating and talking with the doctors, his family and friends after surgery and then in the early morning hours he crashed."
Crosley said the hospital has communicated with the family and shared some information, but not the specific details about the air that was in his brain.
"The family did not know anything about the air until recently," Cosley said. "They found out that information when the (Tyler) police department shared the information with them."
“This is an unthinkable tragedy, hospitals should not employ nurses that harm patients; we will hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions,” Crosley stated.
CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Francis hospital released a statement the same day of Davis' arrest, stating in part:
We believe the issues with Mr. Davis were isolated to him and he acted independently and of his own accord.
Davis remains in the Smith County Jail on a $2 million bond.
LouAnna Campbell with the Tyler Morning Telegraph contributed to this article.