Dental Student Died in ICU With No On-Site Doctor — Pronounced Dead Over Video, Lawsuit Says

A dental student in Connecticut died in the Intensive care unit while he was being attended by a doctor remotely. The student allegedly died due to the lack of a physical doctor.

The 26-year-old student's parents have filed a lawsuit against Yale New Heaven Health, which owns and operates Bridgeport Hospital, Milford Campus, and Northeast Medical Group, which also comes under Yale New Heaven Health, where their son died in 2024. The parents have filed the lawsuit mentioning negligence leading to the death of the dental student.

The 26-year-old dental student who lost his life at the ICU is identified as Cornor Hylton. The legal complaint filed by Hylton's family, which Law&Crime obtained, mentions the ICU operators have "violated hospital policy because no on-site doctor assessed Hylton from the time he was admitted to the ICU till the time he showed seizure-like activity."

The complaint details that Hylton was brought into the emergency department of the hospital on August 14th, 2024, and was “subsequently admitted” to the hospital with a diagnosis that included oancreatities, dehydration, metabolic acidosis, and alcohol withdrawal.

“Hylton’s condition deteriorated, and he was transferred to the ICU, where his condition continued to change and deteriorate over the evening and early morning hours of August 15th, 2024. The changes included a change in mental status, restlessness, and agitation despite Precedex administration,” the complaint read.

While Hylton was at the ICU, the hospital utilized the service of a “tele-ICU.” The complaint mentioned that there were no ICU intensivists present at the time.

“Instead, the hospitalist, in this case, never saw the patient,” the complaint alleges. “It also appears from the sparse ICU records that ICU RN was only contacting the “tele-ICU” service for sedation orders as Hylton’s condition deteriorated in the ICU, and despite orders, there was no CIWA assessment, no input/output monitoring and no MD assessment for the pain and no change in mental status despite the RN’s non-contemporaneous note indicating mental status change in patient diagnosed with alcohol withdrawal seizure for which he was previously given keppra.”

According to the complaint, Hylton was admitted at around 11 at night and became unresponsive in the early morning hours the next day.

According to the victim’s parent, the pronouncement of death was also done by the “tele-doctor” on the video screen. The family wasn’t even notified about what was going on or the deteriorating health status of Hylton, according to the complaint.

The defendant allowed for extremely poor communication among the providers responsible for the death of Hylton. Such a situation is especially important to the Intensive Care Unit, as the patients are relying on the hospital; it can be dangerous to rely on off-site “tele-ICU” providers.