The children of a woman who died in a "severe state of starvation," weighing just 60 pounds, filed a wrongful death suit Wednesday against the doctor treating her eating disorder.
The civil complaint, filed in 3rd District Court against Dr. Michael A. Kalm by Kim Bowman, the ex-husband of Ann Davis Menlove, on behalf of their three sons, seeks damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
The filing cites negligent treatment of Menlove's eating disorder and psychiatric condition as the cause of her death. The family is claiming that Kalm's medical treatment fell short of recognized minimum standards in his treatment of anorexia nervosa and his use of prescription medication.
Menlove, who was found dead in her home in December 2001 at age 45, had received psychiatric care from Kalm between 1980 and 1982, and again from 1992 until the day before she died, according to the filing.
She apparently had fallen because she was too disoriented to stand and then suffocated because she was too weak to lift herself, the filing states. At 5-foot-2 and 60 pounds, the medical examiner noted her body was in a "severe state of starvation," according to the complaint.
Her ex-husband has had custody of the couple's three sons, born between 1985 and 1988, for the past seven years. Bowman and Menlove divorced in 1988. Menlove's mother, her primary caregiver, was killed in a traffic accident in October 2001, just weeks before Menlove's own death.
A letter written in 1999 by one of the sons to his grandparents about Menlove's condition describes his fear that she "will die before she gets better," according to court documents. It also states that her medications "make her act weird."
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