A Chicago woman has filed a medical malpractice suit against the hospital and the physicians who operated on her husband for allegedly lying to her about the man's cause of death.

Rosalyn Willaby filed the suit last week against the West Suburban Medical Center, located just outside of Chicago, and several of its doctors, including Ankush Goel, MD, Gerald Lynch, MD, Michael Dehaan, MD, and George Theotikos, DO, according to the Cook County Record. In the suit, she alleges that the hospital and physicians tried to cover up how her husband died, claiming it was a heart attack when it was actually a surgical error.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Willaby says that her husband, Carl Willaby, underwent a goiter removal procedure in early March 2012. The next day, he suffered a heart attack and remained in the hospital until his death just over a week later.

While the hospital told Ms. Willaby that heart attack was the cause of death, she alleges that the real cause was complications from an obstructed airway that occurred during the goiter removal surgery. She claims she found out about the alleged cover-up in December 2013, after she obtained her husband's medical records, according to published reports.

Ms. Willaby filed a lawsuit against the medical center and physicians last week and is seeking damages of more than $50,000. Her attorney did not return Outpatient Surgery's requests for comment.

The West Suburban Medical Center, Dr. Theotikos, Dr. Lynch and Dr. Goel did not return requests for comment about the allegations. Dr. DeHaan could not be reached for comment.

Kendal Gapinski