Novato Widow Of Late Tennis Star Gets $3M In Sepsis Case

NOVATO, CA — The widow of tennis star and California resident Ken Flach was awarded nearly $3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente Medical Group.

Kaiser Permanente was found guilty of negligence in Flach's death and was ordered to pay the surviving members of his family — his widow, Christina, and their four children — $2.885 million.

Kaiser Permanente told KTVU in a statement that sepsis care countdown "begins as soon as at-risk patients enter the hospital or show signs of Sepsis, enabling aggressive early intervention and monitoring."

Christina Flach told the TV station she wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of sepsis and shine a light on the importance of consulting with doctors in person.

"My husband was so funny, witty and charming," she said. "He was very healthy."

Ken Flach, of Novato, California, won four Grand Slam titles in men’s doubles and two in mixed doubles. Flach and tennis partner Robert Seguso formed a formidable duo in the 1980s and earned the No. 1 ranking in men’s doubles in 1985. Together, the duo won 28 titles, including championships at the U.S. Open in 1985 and at Wimbledon in 1987 and 1988. They also took home a gold medal for the United States at the 1988 Olympics.

Flach's widow believes he would still be alive if he was given proper attention and treatment. What started as a bad cold ended in death in days, she said.

The arbitrator in the case ruled that a nurse and doctor improperly handled the Flaches' calls. Christina Flach told the nurse March 7, 2018, that her husband was sicker than she'd ever seen. He experienced chest pains and severe weakness. The nurse scheduled a call with Ken Flach’s primary care doctor for four hours later, rather than sending him to an emergency room or an in-person visit with a general practitioner. The call lasted three minutes, and neither the nurse nor the doctor recognized the severity of Flach's health. He was told to take over-the-counter medicines and call back if his symptoms worsened.

The following morning, Christina Flach drove her husband to an emergency room, where doctors said he was suffering from a severe case of community-acquired pneumonia, compounded because he was also infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Flach also had acute respiratory failure, renal failure, septic shock, hemoptysis and neutropenia stemming from the pneumonia.

Flach started taking multiple antibiotics, but the disease had progressed too far. He died March 12, 2018, at age 54.

Following his death, Christina Flach took up a fight against sepsis.

A month after his death, she was contacted by the Sepsis Alliance and forged a partnership that lasted for nearly four years. This includes a public awareness campaign featuring advertisements seen by hundreds of thousands of bus and ferry passengers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The ordeal that our entire family went through showed us quite painfully that sepsis can be much more serious and aggressive than people realize,” she said in a statement. “It’s my goal to see to it that everyone knows about these potential dangers.”