An Arizona family is seeking justice and pushing for reforms after their 27-year-old son tragically died just hours after being improperly released from a hospital and left on a sidewalk during the sweltering summer heat, as outlined in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Seth and Gayle Lachica, parents of the deceased Kaelen Lachica, claim the staff at Abrazo Health Arrowhead arranged for him to be transported via Uber and abandoned him outside a Phoenix homeless shelter, despite his health visibly declining.
“What they did amounts to abandonment. They effectively ended my son’s life,” Seth Lachica shared with Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit accuses the Arizona hospital of prematurely discharging Kaelen Lachica while his condition was still critical, leading to his untimely death, according to the family’s attorney, Richard Lyons of Kelly & Lyons.
Kaelen Lachica had battled anorexia for nearly ten years, yet his health had been on the mend in the year leading up to his August 2025 hospitalization, his father explained.
Initially admitted to one medical facility, Lachica was then transferred to Abrazo Health Arrowhead after experiencing a potential stroke and significant weight loss.
Days prior to his discharge, his health declined to the point 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 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 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 responding officers. “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 transported to another hospital, where he died. The lawsuit alleges that Abrazo staff displayed a conscious disregard for Kaelen’s physical safety and well-being.
“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.
