DENVER-
The husband of a woman who killed her two sons and then herself sued a Colorado Springs hospital Friday where she had been treated and released nearly two days before the tragedy.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by Donald Rifkin, accused the hospital of failing to take the proper steps to protect Julie Rifkin and their sons when she was taken to the emergency room after making the threats.
Also named in the suit were Dr. Clinton Fouss, who treated Julie Rifkin in Memorial’s emergency room, and clinical social worker Yvette Sletta, who also evaluated her.
“Dr. Fouss, Ms. Sletta and Memorial Hospital knew and should have known that the lives of the minor children, Nathan Rifkin and Gabriel Rifkin, were at risk and needed to be protected,” attorney James J. Murphy wrote in the lawsuit.
Hospital spokesman Mark Goldberg said Friday night they had not seen a copy of the suit so could not comment on the allegations.
Donald Rifkin was working in Columbia, S.C., after being laid off from a job in Colorado Springs when the bodies of his 41-year-old wife and their 12-year-old son Gabriel were found April 24, 2005, in their home. His 13-year-old son Nathan suffered a gunshot wound to the head and died later that day.
Two days before, Julie Rifkin told a coworker she thought she would get a gun and kill herself and her sons, according to the lawsuit. After the coworker called 911 and reported the threat, police and paramedics took Julie Rifkin into protective custody and transported her to Memorial Hospital.
In the emergency room, Julie Rifkin repeated to Fouss her comment that she “might just get a gun and shoot myself” and that she would kill her children, too.
Fouss noted that Julie Rifkin’s comments “were made out of haste and that she did not actually mean it,” the lawsuit said.
He and Sletta, who also spoke with Julie Rifkin, concluded she could be released to her home, the lawsuit claimed.
Rifkin purchased a revolver from a pawnshop the following day and, either late that night or early April 24, 2005, she shot her sons and killed herself, the lawsuit said.
