A Los Angeles family has sued the operators of a Gardena acute care hospital, alleging an 82-year-old woman attached to a ventilator died in March when electrical power failed and no backup generator system was in place to keep the machine on.

The four children of Virginia Betty Brown charge KND Development, Vista Hospital of South Bay and Kindred Healthcare Operating Inc. are guilty of elder abuse, negligence, negligence in hiring and supervision, and wrongful death. The hospital operates under the name Kindred Hospital South Bay at 1246 W. 155th St., according to its website.

“The most basic thing you have in an acute care hospital is backup power,” said attorney Stephen Garcia, whose firm filed the lawsuit on May 29 in Los Angeles Superior Court. “It is incomprehensible that this most basic of backup systems was not in place because they didn’t want to spend the money. They were just too damn cheap.”

Hospital officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Brown was transferred to Kindred Hospital on Feb. 20 following treatment for breathing problems and pneumonia at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood. Brown used a wheelchair and had several medical issues, including severe dementia, respiratory problems, diabetes, congestive heart failure and end-stage renal failure, the lawsuit said.

When admitted, Brown was placed on an “electricity powered bilevel positive airway pressure system with a mask” to assist with her breathing.

About 1:10 a.m., a nurse called Brown’s son, Larry, to tell him his mother’s heart rate and breathing had declined and she was declared a “code blue.” The nurse said she would call back with updates.

About an hour later, a male nurse called the son and informed him his mother had died following 40 minutes of efforts to revive her.

As the day progressed, a quality and risk manager and the hospital’s director of risk management informed her son that a power outage had occurred about midnight that morning. Asked if the outage played a role in the death, Jamie Hall, the quality and risk manager, answered “yes,” the lawsuit alleges.

Garcia said he did not know the length of the outage or its cause. He said he contacted Southern California Edison, but had not received an answer.

A Southern California Edison spokeswoman told the Daily Breeze the utility had no report of an outage around midnight March 2 near Kindred Hospital South Bay in Gardena.

The lawsuit also alleges the hospital is understaffed and employees are insufficiently trained.

In addition to Larry Brown, the plaintiffs were listed as Dwight Brown, Dartanyua J. Hill and Donte L. Hill.