The family of Joaquin Rivera plans to sue Aria Health System over the Latino musician's death, Philly.com reported.
"We are now on the cusp of filing a civil lawsuit," Tom Kline, the family's attorney, said last night.
This comes on the heels of Thursday's Department of Health report that says a nurse twice called Rivera's name but never went to look for him. Rivera, 63, died of a heart attack in a hospital waiting room in November.
The report said Rivera's name first was called 17 minutes after he arrived, which was seven minutes after he stopped moving. Hospital personnel didn't check on him until another patient alerted them an hour after Rivera arrived.
After he lost consciousness, Rivera was robbed, police said. Three people have been charged.
The list of hospital errors that took place before, during and after his death was extensive, state investigators found.
While Rivera's friends and relatives had already assumed as much, having their suspicions confirmed in the stark report reopened old wounds.
Rivera was a counselor at Olney High School. He also was a musician known as an advocate for Puerto Rican folk arts in Philadelphia.
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He recently wrote and recorded "Philadelphia, I Choose to Stay Here" -- a protest song about a neighborhood's fight to keep the city from taking homes for urban removal.
