Patton

FACTS

On January 30, 2017, plaintiffs brought an action for professional negligence and

wrongful death against Riverside County (as the owner and operator of Riverside

University Health System and Riverside County Regional Medical Center) and Bipin 2 Patel, M.D., a physician who works for the county. Plaintiffs alleged that two months

after their 15-year-old daughter was a patient in a county hospital and prescribed

Lexapro, she took her own life as a result of the side effects of the drug. Plaintiffs alleged

defendants negligently contributed to their daughter’s death by prescribing a drug with a

high risk of suicidal ideations in teenagers without first determining whether the drug and

Unlabeled statutory citations refer to the Government Code. 2 Later in the litigation, plaintiffs added a county pharmacist as defendant, Mark Tang, Pharm. D. Plaintiffs also sued various private individuals and entities, but we do not discuss them here because they are not parties to this appeal. 2 dose was appropriate and without providing any warnings about the drug’s lethal side

effects. The truth of these troubling allegations is not at issue in this appeal, however.

And so we…