A few days after the authorities in Minnesota announced that no one would be criminally charged in the 2016 overdose death of Prince, his next of kin are suing an Illinois hospital that treated the singer for an opioid overdose the week before his fatal incident, according to a suit filed on Monday.
Prince’s family, under the name of a trustee, Michael A. Zimmer, charge in the suit that the singer received improper medical care in the early morning hours of April 15, 2016, after Prince’s private plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill., following a show in Atlanta.
The suit claims that Prince’s death was a “direct and proximate cause” of the hospital failing to appropriately diagnose and treat the overdose, as well as its failure to investigate the cause and provide proper counselling.
The family said the hospital should have investigated to see if Prince had taken a counterfeit medicine.
According to Minnesota prosecutors, doctors in Moline administered to Prince two doses of Narcan, which reverses the opioid overdose, but did not test the pills in Prince’s system — although the singer was famously insistent on his privacy.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Illinois Friday but revealed later by lawyers, also targeted the pharmacy chain Walgreens for allegedly dispensing medicine without proper checks.
“What happened to Prince is happening to families across America,” family lawyers George Loucas and John Goetz said in a statement.
“The family wishes through its investigation to shed light on this epidemic and how to better the fight to save lives. If Prince’s death helps save lives, then all was not lost.”
Walgreens and the hospital declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying they do not comment on ongoing litigation.
Prince, 57, was outwardly a model of health who fired bandmates over drug use but had been suffering pain after undergoing hip surgery
