The Malibu California rehabilitation facility resides on a magnificent hilltop where it offers a safe haven to people who are addicted.
Although an early adult life was forever changed, the beautiful exterior of the facility hides the heartbreaking consequences.
The popular entertainment professional Emily Willis decided to get back her life after she had experienced a severe addiction to ketamine.
Willis, who was born Litzy Lara Banuelos, was accepted into Summit Malibu on January 27, 2024 while she took in five to six grams of ketamine every day.
She had sought professional assistance because the strong dissociative anesthetic had done serious damage to her physical well-being and mental state.
Willis was in the facility with multiple medical problems of bladder inflammation and anxious night terrors in addition to anxiety and PTSD symptoms.
The patient’s family says the treatment facility did not offer enough medical help to their member when the latter faced urgent health problems.
Throughout those consecutive days, her health deterioration was accelerated.
While she obtained a urinary tract infection and extensive pain, she became seriously dehydrated, so blood pressure measurement was impossible for nurses.
During her stay, drug tests also showed an absolute absence of ketamine and any other related substances.
There were various doubts of how accurately she was diagnosed and whether the treatment techniques applied were proper.
On February 3rd 2024 emergency services attended Willis, but she was not treated by hospital medical services.
On the following day, Willis lost consciousness inside her room.
Medical professionals regained the patient’s heartbeat after hospital personnel performed CPR on her for thirty to forty minutes.
However, due to the extended period of time that the asteroid spent without oxygen exposure, severe negative affects occurred.
After being diagnosed, the medical staff determined that she was in total paralysis and have a condition called ‘locked-in syndrome’.
The paralysis is from a specific medical condition in which brain damage causes paralysis of all voluntary muscles except for muscles that control eye movements.
Patients with this diagnosis are completely aware, but they do not move at all, because their muscles are paralyzed, except for some basic eye movements.
Willis’ awareness of the world about her does not protect her from paralysis and any recovery is very much not going to happen.
Because her health situation does not improve, she is living in a Utah care facility at present.
After this devastating event, the lawyers representing Willis have filed legal action against the two treatment facilities, including Summit Malibu and its parent organization, Malibu Lighthouse Treatment Centers, LLC.
The facility was also accused of professional negligence and false business methods based on a complaint filed at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on December 27, 2024, that also alleged abusive mistreatment of dependent adults.
The family’s attorney, James A. Morris Jr., said, “Had the staff followed standard medical protocols, Emily would have had the opportunity to regain control of her life,”
The practice of the unacceptable deterioration of medical service should not be an acceptable form of patient treatment.
In the permanent transformations, no one in the medical team paid attention to her health until it was too late in saving her life.
According to the legal complaint, the facility violated its admission guidelines while failing to meet safety requirements.
The medical staff supposedly allowed Willis to decide to go to urgent care, but they had known that she was incapable of making these medical choices due to her current condition.
Because they want the rehab center to be responsible for whatever carelessness it may show in its prospective care of her, her family takes legal action.
In this case, the tragic events require higher medical supervision standards for rehabilitation centers to protect the patients from harm.
The incident shows how the position in which patients with medical conditions find themselves is weak.
However, during this ongoing legal process, more people expect treatment facilities to make major changes in their handling of critical medical crises.
Emily Willis’ sad experience needs ethical reform, accountability from treatment facilities, and full legal justice in the system.
