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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Funeral services will be held in Salt Lake City this weekend for an Air Force Staff Sergeant who died after a routine appendectomy.
Sergeant Dean Witt died January ninth after he was taken off life support at David Grant Medical Center in Fairfield, California.
Witt's family says he died because of negligent care after the routine procedure. They say he suffered brain damage after being deprived of oxygen for as long as 15-minutes and was left in a vegetative state in October.
A hospital ethics board made a decision to remove the feeding tube in December.
Witt transferred from Hill Air Force Base in Utah to Travis Air Force Base in California to become a recruiter. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
He'll be laid to rest Saturday at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
