'Excruciating' bedsore subject of hospital complaint, hearing Tuesday

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. ---The photos show the kind of nightmarish wound typically reported in the worst of nursing homes.

A complaint filed in Allen Superior Court in January states that the bedsore photographed went untended at a local hospital, causing unbearable pain and had a hand in the victim’s death.

A Medical Review Board sided with the patient's family.

Tuesday, Judge Andrew Williams will preside over an initial hearing on the case of Donald Snyder whose family is suing Lutheran Hospital, known as IOM Health System in court files, for medical negligence that either caused or “hastened” his death on Sept. 2, 2024.

Snyder was admitted to the hospital almost exactly a year prior to the day of his death with complications from Stage 3 esophageal cancer. His primary complaint was a severe loss of weight, a court filing indicated.

Doctors performed an Ivor Lewis esphagectomy, a procedure that removes a tumor from the esophagus through the abdomen and chest wall, according to an online description from Stanford (University) Medicine.

In his weakened condition, he was unable to turn himself over in bed, the court filing said. Snyder had “an impaired ability to swallow, was ventilated and medically sedated for a prolonged period of time.”

Photos included in filing of necrotic wound. In dispute is the care the patient received for a bedsore.

For four to five days, Snyder was not routinely “repositioned,” including a period of 55 day hours.  Because of this lack of care, Snyder developed a severe coccyx (tailbone) pressure wound that progressed to a large necrotic open wound, the filing said.

Necrotic wounds can lead to extremely serious conditions such as sepsis, gangrene, organ failure and death, according to Wound Source, an online medical source.

Snyder lived about a year after the surgical intervention, but even with “significant medical care to his coccyx wound,” he was in “excruciating pain every time he sits (sic) down.”

Through her attorney, Snyder’s widow, Kelly, said Lutheran and their employees “breached the standard of care by failure to reposition Mr. Snyder” that led to the wound.

On Nov. 12, 2025, a Medical Review Panel agreed with Snyder that Lutheran “did breach the standard of care and that said breach was a factor in the catastrophic harm suffered by Mr. Snyder.”

Lutheran is denying malpractice. As far as the repositioning which Snyder’s team called “critically important,” Lutheran attorneys wrote that “the term ‘critically important’ is unclear, confusing and appears to be an inaccurate substitution for the definition of standard of care.”

Lutheran also called some of the facts stated in the lawsuit as “vague.”

Snyder’s widow is seeking medical costs for his last illness, funeral and burial expenses, costs for administering the estate and “reasonable costs of prosecuting or compromising the wrongful death action against Lutheran.”

Donald Snyder, 72 when he died, was a graduate of North Side High School who loved to play guitar, listen to live music and drive his boat at the lake, according to his online obituary. He was a fan of the New York Mets and IU basketball.

He spent his career as a master carpenter, retiring as superintendent from Fetters Construction where he worked for 20 years.

Daren T. Niemi, an attorney with Sweeney Law Firm here in Fort Wayne, filed for Snyder. D. Andrew Spalding with the Mishawaka-based May, Obergfell Lorber law firm is representing Lutheran.