MITCHELL

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 05:36:46 :

Independent Journal
Monday, January 5, 1981
Page 4

Woman dies after refusing hospitalization

San Rafael – A San Rafael woman died at her home Sunday morning, the day after she told her doctor she would rather stay at home than in a hospital room where she could not smoke cigarettes.

Dr. Carroll Russell, physician for the woman, Dorothy Berry Mitchell, 61, spoke with Mrs. Mitchell by phone Saturday. He recommended that she go to the hospital because she was feeling ill and recent tests made him think she might have a serious illness.

However, he could get her a room at Ross General Hospital, where she wished to go, only with another woman who was in an oxygen tent, and that meant no one could smoke cigarettes in the room.

He suggested she spend one or two nights in the room and by today a private room where she could smoke probably could be found. But Mrs. Mitchell decided to stay at home until the private room could be found.

Russell said the cause of her death has not yet been determined, so there is no way to know if Mrs. Mitchell would have lived had she gone to the hospital. He said there were various things about her health that had concerned him, but because her heart seemed sound and there was no obvious emergency, he could not compel her to go to the hospital against her wishes.

Mrs. Mitchell is survived by a son, Charles Mitchell of Fairfax. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Daphne mortuary in Corte Madera.