Suit filed on behalf of Gatesville hospital explosion victim’s mother

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed Thursday in Dallas on behalf of the mother of a worker killed in an explosion in a building under construction at the Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville.

Isabel Aranzamendi is seeking damages in excess of $1 million in the suit against Atmos Energy Corp., Waco-based Lochridge-Priest, Inc., and Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls, Inc.

Her son, Wilber Dimas, 30, died on July 15 in the burn unit at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin where he had been in a medically-induced coma

Dimas suffered burns over 70 percent of his body and contracted pneumonia with burns inside his lungs.

The explosion on June 26 inside a physical plant under construction behind the existing Coryell Memorial Healthcare System facility to house the hospital's new physical plant including boilers and chillers left two workers dead and 14 others, including Dimas, injured, nine critically.

Michael Bruggman of Rogers, died in the explosion.

Filiberto Morales, 36, of Round Rock, died two days later at Scott & White Medical Center in Temple.

Ground was broken in November 2016 for the major renovation and expansion project at the hospital.

The 117,000-square foot project includes new operating rooms, a new 25-bed hospital wing, administration offices, a 16-bed rehabilitation facility and the new central plant that houses chillers and boilers.