By Livi Stanford
WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT—The parents of a 26-year-old dental student are suing the hospital where he died, saying that the doctor who oversaw his care in ICU was not present physically but attended virtually.
Conor Hylton’s parents’ wrongful death lawsuit alleges Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus was negligent in his August 2024 death and that the ICU unit was absent of a physical doctor to monitor patients but instead had a provider overseeing patients virtually.
The lawsuit was filed against Yale New Haven Health, which owns Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus. The lawsuit also includes Northeast Medical Group, a not-for-profit multi-specialty medical foundation founded in 2010 that is also part of Yale New Haven Health.
“He had everything lined up for a great life,” said William Hylton, the father of Conor Hylton, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of his son.
“Conor was engaged to a student in law school and obviously everyone’s devastated,” he said.
Liam Hylton, the brother of Conor Hylton, said in a text message that “the circumstances of Conor’s death created a responsibility we cannot ignore.
“If the very systems and people entrusted to protect human life failed on so many levels, then our silence and inaction would only allow those failures to happen again,” Liam Hylton said. “Behind every name on a medical chart is a human being, someone who means the world to another person, someone who is a beloved brother, sister, son, or daughter.”
The lawsuit follows an investigation from the state Department of Public Health in July 2025 that found the “hospital failed to ensure quality medical care was provided,” concerning Hylton’s care at the hospital.
DPH’s report also said, “the hospital failed to ensure nursing assessments were conducted in accordance with the physician’s order, failed to effectively communicate the patient’s needs as documented, resulting in (Hylton) having an incorrect diet.”
“The patient experienced a choking episode and was transferred to the ICU,” DPH’s report said.
The report also said that the facility “failed to ensure medications were administered in accordance with physician’s orders.”
On Aug. 14 of last year Conor Hylton went to Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus emergency department and was admitted with a diagnosis including “pancreatitis, dehydration, metabolic acidosis, and alcohol withdrawal,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said that Conor Hylton’s condition deteriorated and he was transferred to the ICU where his condition “continued to deteriorate and change over the early morning hours of Aug. 15 including mental status changes, restlessness, and agitation.”
At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, Conor Hylton slid down in his bed, “his eyes rolled back and he became unresponsive and exhibited seizure-like activity, vomited, became bradycardic and a code was called,” according to the lawsuit.
“Efforts to resuscitate Conor and his pronouncement of death are erroneously attributed to Dr. (Frances) Denu in the medical record, but in reality, Dr. Denu did nothing and the pronouncement was done by a ‘tele-health’ provider on a video screen,” the lawsuit said.
DPH’s review of the clinical record found that between 12:38 a.m. and 4:33 a.m., after Conor Hylton was transferred to the ICU, that it “failed to identify MD #127 assessed the patient and/or directed orders for the delivery of care.”
A Bridgeport Hospital spokesman said “Yale New Haven Health is aware of this lawsuit and is committed to providing the safest and highest quality of care possible, however, we are unable to comment on pending litigation.”
Asked whether Yale New Haven utilizes the service of a tele-ICU in its hospitals, a spokesman said the model “enhances critically ill patients by pairing advanced virtual monitoring with expert bedside teams.
“A dedicated virtual team collaborates closely with on‑site nurses, physicians and ICU intensivists to provide continuous monitoring, timely decisions and coordinated, high‑quality care throughout the ICU stay,” the spokesman said.
Asked if the Bridgeport Milford Campus has a doctor in the ICU on a regular basis to respond to patients, a Bridgeport Hospital spokesman said “We do have intensivists at Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus.”
The Connecticut Hospital Association said “Tele-ICU is a model used by some hospitals to further support bedside ICU teams by allowing intensivist physicians, critical-care nurses, and advanced practice critical care providers to remotely monitor patients and provide clinical guidance in real time.
“Different than telehealth in other care settings, it is designed to enhance care for critically ill patients by adding another layer of expert oversight, not replacing bedside care,” CHA said in an email.
Nationally, it’s estimated (as of 2020) “that tele-ICU is used in roughly 13–18% of ICUs, primarily to expand access to critical care expertise,” CHA said.
Referring to DPH’s investigation of the hospital in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the lawsuit said the investigation “exposed a culture of inattentiveness and substandard care.
“This culture of inattention and substandard care “allowed for extremely poor communication among the providers responsible for Conor’s life which is especially dangerous to patient care when the hospital is relying on offsite tele-ICU providers to care for its patients,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the hospital also did not notify Conor’s parents when he was transferred to the ICU and his condition “gradually decompensated with his airway becoming unstable.”
Further, the lawsuit said that there was a delay in intubation of Conor Hylton “because the provider summoned to perform the intubation did not know how to find the ICU and had to find someone else to show him where it was located.”
“This is a massive tragedy for the whole family for a bright young man who had a tremendous future ahead of him,” said Joel Faxon, of Faxon Law Group, who is representing the Hylton family.
“It’s alarming to think in a supposedly intensive care setting: Where is a doctor? Where are the nurses? How does the emergency doctor not know how to get to the ICU to provide life-saving care?” Faxon said.
The DPH report also confirmed the physician’s difficulty with finding the ICU, “causing a 10-minute delay.”
DPH also said in its report that the hospital “failed to ensure that an autopsy was offered in accordance with hospital policy.”
A love of dentistry
Growing up in a family of dentists, Conor Hylton was passionate about joining the field himself, according to his family and friends.
Elliott Paintsil, Conor Hylton’s childhood friend, said his friend achieved a 99 percentile on the Dental Admission Test.
He said he served as an example of someone who handled life with grit and grace.
“He really wanted to ace it and it wasn’t enough for him to pass,” he said.
Paintsil said Conor Hylton had a way of being able to balance his studies while also remaining attentive to his family and friends.
Describing his longtime friend, Paintsil said “he was a happy person and he was a joy to be around.
“He always knew how to make everyone around him at ease and happy and grateful to be in those moments with him,” he said.
He said Conor Hylton enjoyed video games, soccer and spending time playing spike ball on the beach for hours.
David Johnson, another friend, said Conor Hylton’s death came as an “utter shock.”
He said he was dedicated to dentistry and studied at UConn School of Dental Medicine.
“He was such a determined person,” he said. “It showed in his schoolwork and when he played hockey he was competitive and very dedicated to what he does and inspired all of us to be like that.”
Describing Conor Hylton as a role model, Johnson said “he always understood what was important and he always made it a point to be there for his friends, enjoy the moment and work hard.”
Conor Hylton’s brother, Blake Hylton, said in a text message that “without Conor our worlds have been completely flipped upside down.
“The laughter, the smile, the stupid jokes, all taken away from us because of mistakes that should have never happened,” he said.
William Hylton said of his son, “I feel really strongly that he was the kind of person that said ‘if it is to be it is up to me.’”
“He felt like his job was to follow in our footsteps, to make us proud,” he said.
“I never wanted him to be just a faceless statistic because he had so much life in front of him and he was such a great kid,” he said.
He said his son’s urn is placed prominently in the family home.
“We kiss it in the morning and in the evening,” he said. “That is what I have of my son because he was not taken care of properly.”