FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News) — The family of Fort Worth-born actor Bill Paxton has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Paxton died Feb. 25 following surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day last year.
According to a news release reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the 61-year-old actor died from a stroke 11 days after having surgery for an aortic aneurysm. The doctor who performed the surgery, Ali Khoynezhad, is named in the lawsuit along with the hospital for failing “to adequately protect Mr. Paxton.”
Attorney Steve Heimberg says in the release that Khoynezhad recommended that Paxton undergo surgery which the complaint contends was unnecessary. It also claims Paxton began suffering complications after the surgeon left the operating room “without arranging for continuous care and coverage … and failed to timely return to the operating room upon notification of the complications, causing a delay in treatment resulting in damage. ”
Dr. Khoynezhad left his position at Cedars-Sinai shortly after Paxton’s death.
Paxton was born in Fort Worth on May 17, 1955. He attended Aledo High School and then Arlington Heights High School. He moved to California after graduating from Arlington Heights and began working on film crews before making his way onto the big screen.
He was also instrumental in the creation of the Fort Worth Lone Star Film Festival. This past November the festival honored Paxton with a tribute and presentation of its first Bill Paxton Achievement in Film Award for Acting to actress Cybill Shepherd.
