Doctor sues Uniontown-area family over suit settlement

A former Fayette County doctor is suing a Uniontown-area couple, claiming he didn't support a 2001 settlement the family received in a wrongful death case involving the family's 16-year-old daughter.

In the lawsuit filed this week, Dr. Tusharsindhu C. Chauhan raises his doubt about the cause of Stephanie Santello's apparent sudden death on March 22, 1996, at The Uniontown Hospital.

The girl's family took her to the hospital a day earlier because of "viral, flu-like symptoms," according to the 1998 lawsuit against the doctor and hospital.

An autopsy by forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, of Pittsburgh, determined Stephanie's death was natural, "most probably a manifestation of Reye's Syndrome," court records state.

The disease almost always is associated with a previous viral infection, such as influenza, cold or chicken pox, according to the National Reye's Syndrome Foundation.

Stephanie's relatives alleged Chauhan failed to diagnose the condition.

After four days of a civil trial in April 2001, the parties agreed one month later to a confidential $350,000 settlement, which Chauhan attached in his lawsuit as an exhibit.

Washington County attorney William D. Phillips, who represented Chauhan during the previous case, did not return a message left Thursday at his office.

Acting without an attorney, Chauhan sued Stephanie's parents, John and Diana Santello, and Karen L. Kelly, a Minnesota physician who prepared a report for the plaintiffs in the wrongful death case.

John Santello referred a reporter to West Virginia attorney J. Michael Benninger, who was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Chauhan was a board-certified internist at the time of Stephanie's death, his lawsuit states.

He now practices in New Jersey, specializing in treatment of diseases of the liver.