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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Casey Kasem’s widow suing for medical records

The Columbian
Published:

TACOMA — The children of radio legend Casey Kasem said Wednesday they will share all hospital records in their possession with his widow, who is suing a hospital in Washington state to learn more about the last weeks of his life.

The records will show all appropriate measures were taken to preserve Kasem’s life, and when it was clear he was dying, to allow him to die comfortably, Kerri, Mike and Julie Kasem said in a statement issued through their lawyer Troy Martin.

The statement came in response to a lawsuit by their stepmother, Jean Kasem, seeking records from St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, where the “American Top 40” host died in June at 82. He had dementia.

The News Tribune reports the lawsuit filed for Jeannie Kasem earlier this month in Pierce County Superior Court seeks medical charts and records of medications and people who visited him.

“The Kasem children are happy to provide Mrs. Kasem with all such records in their possession,” the statement said.

“These records indisputably show that Mr. Kasem was extremely ill when admitted to St. Anthony’s hospital on June 1, 2014,” the statement added. “These records also demonstrate that Kerri Kasem, as the court-appointed conservator of the person, authorized an aggressive course of treatment to combat the life-threatening infections Mr. Kasem had developed while under Mrs. Kasem’s care.”

The statement went on to say that physicians at the hospital recommended that Kasem undertake hospice care so that he might die comfortably.

Jean Kasem had moved her husband from California to a friend’s home in Washington state in a battle over his care with the three children from a previous marriage. Kerri Kasem had won control of her father’s care and had him taken to the hospital.

“When Casey entered the hospital, there was no expectation he had only a couple of weeks of life left to live,” said Jean Kasem’s attorney Lance Hester. “When he perished, his wife, Jeannie, was never given any sort of explanation.”

Privacy laws forbid talking about a specific patient, said Mary Getchell, director of strategic communications for CHI Franciscan Health, St. Anthony’s parent system.

But the hospital is generally required to turn over records to someone who proves they are authorized to have them, which could include a family member, she said.

A court hearing is scheduled for April.

The battle between Jean and Kerri Kasem continued after Casey Kasem’s death. Jean had his body moved in July from a Tacoma funeral home to Oslo, Norway, for burial.

Other relatives and friends say Casey Kasem had wished to be buried at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles.

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