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Hospital, nurse sued in ‘alarm fatigue’ death

By Liz Kowalczyk

 |  Globe Staff  

  September 21, 2011

The family of Edward Harrigan - a patient who died at Tobey Hospital in Wareham after no one responded to warnings on his cardiac monitor - filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital and a nurse on Tuesday. Harrigan, 87, was a patient at the hospital in September 2008. His electrocardiogram displayed a “flat line’’ for more than two hours because the battery in his heart monitor had died, but no one changed the battery, according to state investigators.

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