The widow of long-time Philadelphia radio personality and community leader E. Steven Collins has filed a lawsuit, claiming he received substandard care in the emergency room prior to his death.
Collins, 58, died from a heart attack on Sept. 9.
Collins' wife, Lisa Duhart-Collins, filed the lawsuit against Chestnut Hill Hospital, where Collins was taken the night of Sept. 8, 2013 after he complained of chest pains. The lawsuit claims Collins had three abnormal EKGs and that he died while he was waiting to be transferred to Presbyterian Hospital.
According to the lawsuit, a doctor failed to provide urgent treatment for Collins, who eventually went into cardiac arrest before he died shortly after midnight.
“He should’ve been stabilized,” said Tom Kline, an attorney for the family. “He needed to have intervention to undo a blockage. Had that occurred correctly and had he been given the correct medications, which did not terribly depress his blood pressures, he would be alive today.”
NBC10 reached out to officials at Chestnut Hill for a response. We have not yet heard back from them.
Considered by his colleagues as the “unofficial mayor of Philadelphia,” Collins hosted several programs throughout his career, including the show “Philly Speaks,” which aired on Sundays on Old School 100.3 FM. Collins also served as the director of Urban Marketing and External Radio Stations for Radio One.
Collins’ accolades included work on local television, as an analyst on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews as well as work for CNN, PBS and other media entities. He also sat board for Ivy Legacy, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Multicultural Affairs Congress, the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and Mayor Nutter's Commission on Literacy.
Collins was also involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the Urban League of Philadelphia, the African-American Museum and Concerned Black Men of Philadelphia.
A graduate of Temple University, Collins was set to receive the Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award and be inducted into Temple's School of Media & Communication Hall of Fame in October of last year, a month after his death.
Thousands of mourners, including Mayor Michael Nutter, attended his memorial service last year at Sharon Baptist Church in the Wynnefield Heights section of the city.
“E was an icon in Philadelphia,” Kline said. “We hope to obtain a measure of justice for his family.”
