A Connecticut woman who loved to travel the world, survived breast and colon cancer and had both hips replaced was known to “never let any challenge get her down.”

Irene Perretta died in 2025 at 80 years old after being treated at the Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus, according to a negligence lawsuit filed by her family. The hospital is part of the Yale New Haven Health System.

The suit was filed by John T. Bochanis of Daly, Weihing & Bochanis of Bridgeport. Emails seeking comment and phone messages were not returned.

When Perretta went to the hospital in May 2024, a physician assistant who was treating her inserted a feeding tube and allegedly “caused the feeding tube to be improperly inserted” into her “airway and/or pleural space causing a pneumothorax, collapsed lung and a right sided pleural effusion,” the suit claims.

A pneumothorax is a collapsed lung and it “occurs when air leaks into the space between your lung and chest wall,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “This air pushes on the outside of your lung and makes it collapse. A pneumothorax can be a complete lung collapse or a collapse of only a portion of the lung.”

A pneumothorax can be caused by a blunt or penetrating chest injury, certain medical procedures or damage from underlying lung disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

For Perretta, this then allegedly “required placement of a chest tube, and contributing to sepsis, empyema and/or aspiration pneumonia, as a direct result the decedent sustained additional injury, required further invasive intervention” and she suffered a materially worsened clinical course, further contributing to the deterioration of the her “medical condition resulting and/or contributing to her death,” the suit claims.

The suit alleges that there was failure to properly insert the feeding tube, failure to use the care and skill ordinarily used by hospitals, physicians and physician assistants in Connecticut, failure to properly diagnose and treat Perretta while she was a patient at the hospital and failure properly monitor her condition.

As a result of the alleged negligence carelessness, Perretta suffered a collapsed lung, right side pleural effusion, sepsis, empyema and aspiration pneumonia, according to suit.

Aspiration pneumonia “is an infection caused by inhaling something other than air into your lungs,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. “This could be food, liquid, saliva or stomach contents. Many people don’t know they’ve aspirated something. Symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, coughing up blood or pus, chest pain and tiredness.”

Perretta’s “injuries and/or death were caused by the negligence,  carelessness and breach of duty of care of the herein … named defendants through its agents, servants and employees,” the suit alleges.

“Bridgeport Hospital extends our sincere condolences to the patient’s family and loved ones as they grieve this loss,” a spokesperson for Yale New Haven Health said,

“Our caregivers work hard to provide compassionate, high-quality care to every patient we serve. Because this matter is in litigation, we will address the allegations through the appropriate legal channels,” the spokesperson said.

A motion filed on behalf of Yale New Haven Health by Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP seeks to have the suit dismissed. The motion says that Connecticut law “provide two bases for which this case must be dismissed as to a physician assistant, including that it demands that the person be served in-hand or at his usual place of abode. He was not.”

Also, the law “provides that dismissal is the mandatory remedy where the plaintiff fails to attach a letter from a similar health care provider … that evidences the defendant provider’s alleged departure from the applicable standard of care.”

Because the physician assistant is a specialist in Critical Care Medicine, “and the plaintiff failed to provide an opinion letter from a PA specializing in Critical Care Medicine, dismissal of this case as to” that physician assistant is the mandatory remedy, the motion says. The letter also lacked information, failing “to meet the requisite factual detail as to how (the physician assistant) deviated from the subject standard of care in his treatment of the plaintiff’s decedent,” the motion says.

Further, the motion asserts, the physician assistant was no longer an employee of Bridgeport Hospital at the time “the summons and complaint were erroneously served” there.

Perretta’s obituary said she “was a role model to all who knew her. Her smile lit up the room and made others feel welcome, happy and loved,” and was a volunteer for many organizations.

This started in high school “with candy striping at St. Vincent’s Hospital,” and Perretta also had served as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, helped in a grade school library, and following her retirement had worked at St. (Barnabas) Church “assisting with prepping for bake sales, festivals and serving at church luncheons.” The obituary noted that  “each of these experiences” led her to dear friends.

Perretta also had a career that included working for Travelers Insurance, then Elizabeth Arden in Stamford, the obituary said. “She travelled to many places throughout her life including Bermuda, Italy, Greece (she loved Mykonos and Santorini), London, Paris and several states in the U.S.”