Mang Family Files Lawsuit Against Doctors Hospital

The family of a deceased Greenbelt, MD, man has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham, MD, according to Prince George's County court records.

in the early morning hours of May 26, 2010. But before dying, Mang was transported to Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham, MD, where he complained of chest pain and shortness of breath, according to a previous lawsuit against the City of Greenbelt and three of its police officers.

When the day had begun, Mang's mother, Lynda Sheppard, had obtained a protection order and arrest warrant against Mang saying that he had assaulted her and destroyed her property.

Police came to arrest him, and Mang fought with officers, according to investigations by the state police and the Prince George's County State’s Attorney’s office.

In the lawsuit against the city, Sheppard alleged that Mang died as a result of the injuries he suffered when police beat him—breaking his nose and a  rib—while arresting him at her Greenbelt house.

Records from Doctor’s Community Hospital, where Mang was brought after the fight with police, report that he was “awake, alert, cooperative” and “speaking coherently.” But over time, he began to complain and asked that a cardiac exam be ordered, according to the lawsuit against Greenbelt.

Mang was discharged and later died in a holding cell in the Greenbelt Police Department.

He died of natural causes, according to Dr. Zabiullah Ali, assistant medical examiner with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maryland.

“He had a blockage of a coronary artery, which is highly suspicious of him having a heart attack," Ali said in an interview with Patch.

Mang's lawsuit against the city and the Greenbelt officers was dismissed without prejudice, according to the family's attorney J.P. Szymkowicz. The family first filed for dismissal on Feb. 15, 2012, according to court records.

Dismissal without prejudice leaves the door open for the plaintiff to bring a new law suit on the same claim, according to USLegal. 

Four months later on June 15, his mother Lynda Sheppard, sister Blanche Mang, and Ruth Trilli, the mother of his children, filed a lawsuit with a request for a jury trial against the hospital.

The try by date of "Mang vs Doctors Hospital Inc." is Oct. 8, 2013, but no court date has been set. The case is before Judge Crystal Dixon Mittelstaedt in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County in Upper Marlboro.