Donald Ray Grady, Jr., as the Legal Guardian of Tina Louise Chavez, an Incapacitated Adult, and as Next Friend of Shelby Delaine Grady and Selena Raynea Chavez; Shelia Chavez, Individually and as Next Friend to Ricky Daniel Chavez; Benny Chavez, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Ricky Dwayne Chavez, Deceased VS. Northwest Texas Healthcare System, Inc. d/b/a Amarillo Medical Service and d/b/a Northwest Texas Hospital; UHS of Delaware, Inc.; Universal Health Services, Inc.; Michael Todd Booth; and Janine Lynn Carr

Catastrophic ambulance collision on 8/1/99 in amarillo, Texas. The collision occurred after a recently discharged patient stole an ambulance from Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. The ambulance crashed into a minivan carrying the Chavez family, causing the death of Ricky Dwayne Chavez, and serious head injuries to his wife, Tina Louise Chavez, and her daughter, Shelby Delaine Grady. Their young son, Ricky Daniel Chavez, and infant daughter, Selena Raynea Chavez, also suffered injuries in the crash. Mrs. Chavez remains in a nursing home in Amarillo, and family members now have custody of her children.

Despite diagnoses of psychosis, situational depression, and outward symptoms of mental illness, Northwest Texas Hospital had discharged the patient with directions to seek help the next day from a state, taxpayer-funded facility almost 8 miles away. The patient then got into an unlocked and unattended ambulance that two hospital paramedics had left, with the keys in it and the motor running, at the entrance to the hospital emergency room. The theft of the ambulance was captured on a hospital security camera, but neither of the two security guards on duty at the time prevented the theft. The patient later pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years' confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division.

Evidence showed that a device called a "Secure Idle" was available for several hundred dollars that would have enabled the hospital to keep the ambulances running while preventing unauthorized persons from driving away with them.

Defendants alleged that hospitals across the country, particularly prior to 9/11, left keys in ambulances with the motors running, and that such a policy was necessary in order to keep the batteries charged and interior properly climatized for patients, and to enable policemen and other authorized drivers to move the ambulances as necessary.