Flo-Jo's Family Suing Hospital

L O S  A N G E L E S, Aug. 8 -- Florence Griffith Joyner’s family is suing aSt. Louis hospital, charging doctors with failing to detect a brainabnormality two years before the Olympic track star died, the LosAngeles Times reported today.

The lawsuit was filed in a Missouri court under pseudonyms, theTimes said, citing sources close to the case. It accuses employeesof Washington University’s Barnes-Jewish Hospital of improperlyinterpreting the results of an MRI and other tests Griffith Joynerunderwent in 1996 after suffering a seizure during a flight to St.Louis.

The 38-year-old track star suffered another seizure while asleepat home in Mission Viejo in 1998. The Orange County coroner ruledthat it caused her death by suffocation.

The lawsuit accused the St. Louis hospital of neglecting tocompare the tests Joyner received there with those she hadundergone earlier and of not properly reviewing her medicalrecords.

Tests Should Have Revealed Condition

According to the action, the tests should have revealed amedical condition in which the brain’s blood vessels tighten andcause seizures.

One of the top women athletes in track history, Griffith Joynerwon three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. She still holds theworld record for 100 meters.

The plaintiffs are listed as Al Jones, Mary Ruth Jones and theestate of Florence Jones. In reality, the Times said, theplaintiffs are Griffith Joyner’s husband, Al Joyner; her daughter,Mary Ruth Joyner; and the Florence Griffith Joyner estate.

Hospital officials declined comment to the newspaper, sayingthey do not discuss pending litigation. Joyner’s attorney, PaulMeyer, said his client “prefers to make no statement at thispoint.”

Barnes-Jewish is regarded as one of the top hospitals in thenation. A survey published last month in U.S. News and World Reportrated it the seventh best in the country and its neurologydepartment the ninth best.