Texas Widow Sues Firm for Giving Drug Test to Dying Husband - East Idaho News
Business & Money

Texas Widow Sues Firm for Giving Drug Test to Dying Husband

  Published at

GETTY N 110211 LawGavelCourt?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1339498466933Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A Texas widow says in a lawsuit that her late husband’s employer ordered a drug test on him as he lay dying on the floor — and waited hours before calling 911.

Alejandra Perez, 56, said her husband, Benino, loved his job at Texas Industries (TXI), a cement and construction company.  After 38 years there, he was planning to retire in two weeks.  But then he had an accident at work, falling several feet and hitting his head.  He gradually lost consciousness and later died at a hospital.  He was 67.

Benino Perez was working as a loader and batch man at the company’s Dallas headquarters on July 1, 2011, when the accident happened.

The suit, filed by Perez in a Texas district court on June 7, claims that while he “lay unconscious on the ground,” a fellow employee ordered a drug test to be performed on him, and only after two hours were paramedics called. Perez said co-workers unzipped his pants and took urine from him.

“How could they do that?” she said in an interview with ABC News.  “Why did it take them so many hours to call the ambulance?  Even kids know how to do that.”

Perez said her husband had just had a physical about a week prior to the accident and he was “fine.”

She is suing the company for $15 million for actual and punitive damages, saying the company was negligent in failing to train employees and provide proper equipment, and for the wrongful death of her husband.

She and her lawyer said they are not sure why a drug test may have been given.

“There was a total lack of training and safety equipment for Mr. Perez on the date of the accident and reprehensible conduct on the part of a worker doing a drug test on an unconscious, dying employee instead of getting him immediate medical help,” said Perez’s attorney, Domingo Garcia.

“He died a pretty agonizing death,” Garcia said, adding that Benino was on life support for several hours in the hospital before he died.  “It’s been emotionally gut wrenching for the family, especially for his wife.  It’s taken a very heavy emotional toll.”

The company denies that he was given a drug test that delayed a call for an ambulance.

“No drug testing was performed prior to calling 911, nor was it made a prerequisite before medical attention was sought for Mr. Perez,” said TXI in a statement.  “At any time when a TXI employee has immediate medical needs, the first and highest priority is to ensure that their needs are promptly met.  Any drug testing analysis would have been done under the care of the paramedics or at the hospital.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION