Family sues hospital after son dies after ‘Uber discharge’ in extreme heat

A family in Arizona is calling for change and demanding answers after a 27-year-old man died hours after he was mistakenly discharged from the hospital and thrown to the pavement on a hot summer day, according to a wrongful death lawsuit.

Kaelen Lachica’s parents, Seth and Gayle Lachica, allege that Abrazo Health Arrowhead staff gave their son an Uber ride and dropped him off outside a local homeless shelter in Phoenix, even though his condition was deteriorating.

“What they did was abandonment. So they definitely killed my son,” Seth Lachica told Fox News Digital.

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Kaelan Lachica had suffered from anorexia for almost a decade, but his condition improved over the course of a year when he was hospitalized in August 2025, his father said.

Lachica was hospitalized at a single facility before being transferred to Abrazo Health Arrowhead after suffering a possible stroke and losing weight.

Days before he was discharged, his health deteriorated to the point that he became “delusional” and “immobile,” the lawsuit states. On Aug. 13, 2025, Kaelan attacked a nurse and wanted to leave the hospital “against medical advice,” the family’s attorney, Richard Lyons, told Fox News Digital.

The lawsuit alleges that Kaelan was put in a wheelchair and an Uber paid for by the hospital and taken to a homeless shelter in downtown Phoenix. Lyons said he couldn’t remember his address.

However, the complaint stated that Kaelan’s address was included in his medical records and hospital staff had easy access to it before he was discharged.

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Kaelen Lachica had suffered from anorexia for nearly a decade, her family said. (Family attorney Richard Lyons is with Kelly & Lyons)

“I mean, they literally put him in the wheelchair, pushed him out and discharged him,” Lyons said. “And I don’t mean medically discharged, I mean they took him out of the hospital because they didn’t want him as a patient anymore.”

Kaelen was seen collapsed on the sidewalk by a police officer, his family said. Temperatures reportedly reached triple digits that day.

“How do you discharge a very sick man and kick him to the curb in the middle of August?” Lyon said. “If he can or can’t make medical decisions for himself, people die here all the time from the heat.”

The hospital called Seth Lachica while he was sleeping in the early morning hours to inform him that his son had been discharged. After touring the area where Kaelan was left, he saw emergency responders performing CPR on his son on the street.

“I told them not to release him. They Ubered him here,” Lachica told responding officers. “They took him here in an Uber this morning and left him to die.”

Seth Lachica speaks with police after finding his son, Kaelen Lachica, on the sidewalk hours after he was released from an Arizona hospital. (Family attorney Richard Lyons is with Kelly & Lyons)

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Kaelan was transferred to another hospital, where he died. The lawsuit alleges that Abrazo staff showed willful negligence regarding Kaelen’s physical safety and health.

“A security guard at a bar, let alone staff at a hospital, cannot be expected to throw a helpless customer onto the hot Phoenix sidewalk in the middle of August,” the lawsuit states.

“But that’s exactly what Abrazo staff did to Kaelen. This behavior goes beyond simple negligence or medical malpractice; their decision to have their very sick young patient kicked to the curb in Phoenix in August directly led to Kaelen’s death.”

Abrazo Health declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by Fox News Digital.