A Thurston County widow says her husband's tragic and fiery death in his electric wheelchair last year could have been prevented.
Last week Kathy Turner filed a lawsuit blaming the wheelchair's manufacturer, its servicer, and the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) for the events leading up to her husband's death in April 2014.
The suit says that when Kent Allen Turner's wheelchair caught fire, he was unable to get away because of modifications made to the chair by the servicing company to keep Turner from falling out.
Turner burned to death in the Capitol House Apartments in Olympia.
"He needed help going to the bathroom. He needed help preparing food. He needed help with everything," said Turner.
The lawsuit blames DSHS for putting him in those apartments in the first place.
The suit says Kathy Turner was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment when DSHS moved her husband out of a 24-hour care facility to save money. Kent Turner had multiple sclerosis and his wife says she was told he would stay in 24-hour care while she underwent treatment.
"He shouldn't have been in that apartment by himself," said Tony Inglett, who was friends for Kent Turner for about a decade and often cared for him. "He would call me - 'I'm on the floor, I'm in the bathroom.'"
The suit says Turner's Quantum 600 wheelchair built by Pride Mobility was "…negligent in design and manufacture." It says that Pride's licensed agent, NuMotion, modified the chair so that Turner could not get out.