A Las Vegas valley woman feels as if she was robbed of her husband's final moments after she says he had a stroke while on the job, but wasn't notified until it was too late.
Patrice Gardner says her husband Alton was driving an RTC bus for MV Transportation when he had a stroke and was taken to the hospital.
"By the time I got there all he could do was squeeze my hand," Gardner said.
Gardner says that she wasn't notified about what happened until almost 8 hours after her husband's accident. She says once she got to the hospital her husband couldn't speak and passed away days later.
"We could have had a final conversation, exchange 'I love yous', my sons could have said goodbye," Gardner said. "I just feel like they robbed me of that valuable time with my husband."
Gardner says she eventually found out her husband was in the hospital on Facebook through one of her husband's coworkers.
She says since her husband's passing, MV Transportation has given her the runaround and blamed the hospital for not getting in contact with her.
On the other hand, Gardner blames the company. She believes since her husband was on the job when he had a stroke, they should have called his emergency contact.
13 Action News reached out to MV Transportation to see what may have gone wrong. A company spokesman said a manager did try to reach out to Gardner several times, but the phone number provided wasn't correct.
In a statement, MV Transportation said:
"Our condolences go out to Mrs. Gardner. This is a tragic incident and the thoughts and prayers of the entire MV Transportation team are with her and her family.
MV makes every effort to contact the emergency contact in the event an MV employee is injured and becomes ill while on duty, as was the case regarding Mr. Gardner.Each MV employee is required to fill out an employee information sheet upon hiring and this form is to be updated by the employee in the event of a change in information. It is an employee’s responsibility to keep all information on this form current.”
Gardner believes her husband's information was up-to-date. The company could not share what emergency contact number was on file for Gardner.
Gardner says she's not looking for compensation but is looking for closure.
