Lara Nuerge Schultz

Lara Nuerge Schultz gave birth to her first child, Kaitlyn, on November 30, 2000, by cesarean section. On December 19, Lara’s mother-in-law, who is a nurse, noticed that Lara was limping and asked her what happened. She checked Lara’s leg and knee at the time and found no redness, no temperature change or swelling. Even so, she advised Lara to notify her doctor, because she worried that the limping might be due to a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot).

On December 23, Lara’s mother-in-law noticed that Lara was still limping and immediately told her to see her doctor. Checking her leg again, she found no further worrisome signs, but she advised a trip to the emergency room anyway. Lara promised that she would go. On Christmas Day, Lara and her husband visited again, with Lara still limping. Her mother-in-law wanted to take her immediately to the emergency room, but Lara refused because of a planned trip to Indiana to visit her grandfather. Both Lara’s son and his mother begged her not to go, but she felt that she couldn’t miss the trip to visit her grandfather. She left that night for the six-hour trip by car to her grandfather’s home.

Lara was expected to arrive home on December 29 so that she could make her appointment with her doctor. But on December 28, a phone call came from Lara’s mother that Lara had collapsed at a restaurant halfway home and that doctors didn’t believe that she would survive. Lara died two hours later at a hospital in Mansfield, Ohio.