$3 million settlement over dead woman in S.F. General stairwell

Lynne Spalding. (AP Photo/Courtesy of David Perry & Associates) Lynne Spalding. (AP Photo/Courtesy of David Perry & Associates) Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close $3 million settlement over dead woman in S.F. General stairwell 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

San Francisco and the University of California have tentatively agreed to pay a total of $3 million to settle a claim filed by the family of a woman whose body was found in a San Francisco General Hospital stairwell 17 days after she disappeared from her room last year.

“No amount of money will bring back the mother of these two children,” said Haig Harris, attorney for the family of Lynne Spalding. He said the sum being paid to her 20-year-old son, Liam, and daughter, Simone, 24, amounts to a recognition that there was a “systematic breakdown” in hospital protocols for protecting patients.

“We hope that this case will provide new systems to protect all patients from this tragic loss of life,” Harris said.

The city will pay $2.941 million and UC will pay $59,000, Harris said. UC was named in the family’s legal claim over Spalding’s death because its doctors and nurses were involved in her care and monitoring.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the city’s end of the deal Tuesday. UC’s share is less than the amount that must go before the Board of Regents.

Spalding, 57, was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 19, 2013, suffering from a bladder infection. The family’s claim blamed the hospital and the Sheriff’s Department, which provides security at San Francisco General, for multiple failures related to her care and the abortive search after she vanished Sept. 21.

Spalding’s body was not found until Oct. 8, during a routine stairwell check. That discovery came four days after a doctor reported to a nurse that he had seen a woman slumped in a stairwell. No one searched for her at that time, however.

An autopsy found Spalding died of dehydration and liver problems related to alcoholism. The medical examiner’s office said she had been dead several days, but could not tell exactly how long.

Doctors who initially assessed Spalding concluded she was disoriented and weak and ordered that she be monitored around the clock. Despite that, no one was watching her when she disappeared. Even after the doctor reported seeing a woman in the stairwell Oct. 4, no one looked in that area.

The sheriff’s dispatcher who assured a nurse that the matter would be handled that day has been fired, and five other deputies involved in the botched search face discipline. At least two supervisors have served suspensions.

“The conduct of the Sheriff’s Department was outrageous,” Harris said.

Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said the agreement amounted to a “fair and just settlement.”

“We are glad we were able to resolve it without the costs, risk and heartache of litigation,” he said.

Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com