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An Arizona family is demanding accountability and urgent reforms following the tragic death of a 27-year-old man who passed away shortly after being improperly discharged from a hospital, only to be left on a sidewalk during sweltering summer temperatures. This incident has led to the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit.
Seth and Gayle Lachica, the parents of Kaelen Lachica, assert that healthcare workers at Abrazo Health Arrowhead arranged for their son to be taken by Uber and left outside a nearby homeless shelter in Phoenix, despite his visibly declining health.
“What they did amounts to abandonment. They effectively killed my son,” Seth Lachica expressed to Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit claims that Kaelen Lachica’s discharge occurred despite his worsening condition, which ultimately contributed to his death. Family attorney Richard Lyons of Kelly & Lyons represents the Lachicas in this case.
Kaelen had been battling anorexia for nearly ten years but had shown significant improvement in the year leading up to his hospitalization in August 2025, his father explained.
Lachica was hospitalized in one facility before being transferred to Abrazo Health Arrowhead after sustaining a possible stroke and losing weight.
Days prior to his discharge, his health declined to the point where he was “delusional” and “immobile,” the lawsuit states. On Aug. 13, 2025, Kaelan lashed out and struck a nurse and asked 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 into an Uber, which the hospital paid for, and was taken to a homeless shelter in the downtown Phoenix. He couldn’t remember his address, Lyons said.
However, Kaelan’s address was on his medical records and was easily accessible to hospital staff prior to his discharge, the complaint states.
Kaelen Lachica suffered from anorexia for nearly a decade, his parents said. (Family attorney Richard Lyons with Kelly & Lyons)
“I mean they literally got him in a wheelchair and pushed him outside and discharged him,” Lyons said. “And I don’t mean medically discharged, I mean they evicted him from the hospital because they did not want him as a patient anymore.”
Kaelen was spotted collapsed on a sidewalk by a nearby police officer, his family said. Temperatures reportedly reached triple digits that day.
“How in the world are you gonna discharge a man who is very ill and just dump him on a sidewalk in the middle of August?” Lyons said. “If he, you know, whether he can make medical decisions for himself or not, people die out here in the heat all the time.”
The hospital called Seth Lachica in the early morning hours while he was asleep to notify him that his son was being discharged. After circling the area where Kaelan was dropped off, he found emergency responders performing CPR on his son in the street.
“I told them not to release him. They f—— ‘Ubered’ him here,” Lachica told the officers on scene. “They ‘Ubered’ him here this morning and just f—— dropped him off to die.”
Seth Lachica speaks with police after finding his son, Kaelen Lachica, on a sidewalk hours after he was discharged from an Arizona hospital. (Family attorney Richard Lyons with Kelly & Lyons)
Kaelan was taken to another hospital where he died. The lawsuit alleges that Abrazo staff displayed a conscious disregard for Kaelen’s physical safety and wellbeing.
“One would not expect a bouncer at a bar to dump an incapacitated patron onto a hot Phoenix sidewalk in the middle of August—let alone the staff at a hospital,” the lawsuit states. “Yet that is exactly what the Abrazo staff did to Kaelen. This conduct goes beyond mere negligence, or medical malpractice—their decision to have their very sick young patient dumped onto the sidewalk—in Phoenix, in August–directly caused Kaelen’s death.”
Abrazo Health declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by Fox News Digital.