Late on an April 2011 evening, 83-year-old Mark Chanko ran across the street from his wife’s Manhattan home to pick up some milk and bananas. He was hit by a sanitation truck and died at NewYork-Presbyterian hospital due to severe injuries. Sixteen months later his widow, Anita Chanko, was shocked to see his death broadcast on an episode of NY Med, the real-life medical series starring Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Although Mr. Chanko’s face was blurred out, his wife could tell is was him, recognizing his voice and the doctor who had treated him. She watched in horror as her husband moaned in pain, emergency room staff said his blood pressure was falling and then pronounced him dead.

No one in the family had given permission for NY Med to film the treatment or broadcast Mr. Chanko’s final moments. Under federal privacy rules (HIPAA) the details of a person’s health are supposed to be shared only with the patient’s immediate family and whomever they designate.

Although ABC quickly removed the episode involving Mr. Chanko, the family sued ABC, NewYork-Presbyterian and Dr. Sebastian Schubl. An appellate panel dismissed the case recently, but the family is appealing. In court filings ABC and the hospital did not dispute the fact that they did not have consent from the Chanko family, but said that since the patient is not identifiable they did not violate Mr. Chanko’s privacy. They claim the Chanko family’s actions in filing the suit have resulted in their loss of privacy.

The night of Mr. Chanko’s accident the couple had just arrived home after spending a few days in Goshen, Conn. Upon discovering that they were out of some basic food items, Mr. Chanko decided to run across York Avenue to a deli. After he had been gone a few minutes the building doorman buzzed Mrs. Chanko and asked her to come downstairs. When she did not immediately respond a neighbor came and got her.

When Mrs. Chanko got outside she found an ambulance and her husband on a gurney, with his head bandaged. At the hospital she watched emergency department staff push her husband inside. She attempted to run up to the gurney to reassure him but the doctor would not allow it. Dr. Schubl and a social worker came into the conference room at 1:17 a.m. and told the family Mr. Chanko had died.

Hospitals are vying to allow television crews to film the action that happens at their facilities as a way to showcase themselves. Medical ethicists and medical professional organizations such as the American Medical Association worry that the shows exploit patients’ pain for entertainment, but the show’s produceers claim that they educate viewers and even inspire people to choose medical careers. The American College of Emergency Physicians opposes such filming of patients who are unable to give consent.

Myrna Manners, NewYork-Presbyterian’s vice president of public affairs at the time, said “You can’t buy this kind of publicity, an eight-part series on a major medical network.”

Typically hospitals do not receive money for allowing medical reality shows to film in their facilities. NewYork-Presbyterian also received no compensation for allowing NY Med to work there. The payoff is distinguishing themselves as healthcare leaders.

The Chanko family was unaware that the operating room attempts to save the elderly man’s life were recorded. They were also unaware that the audio of Dr. Schubl breaking the news of Mr. Chanko’s death was recorded as well.

Mr. Chanko’s son, Kenneth, 57, has filed complaints against ABC, the hospital, the New York State Department of Health, a hospital accrediting group, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ civil rights office. Officials with the New York state health department concluded that the hospital had violated Mr. Chanko’s rights, as well as their own privacy policies, but New York regulators imposed no sanctions.

A New York State Supreme Court judge allowed some claims to proceed but in November an appellate panel dismissed the case, saying the conduct was not so extreme as to justify a claim of intention infliction of emotional distress. The family is working on an appeal. Kenneth Chanko says that “morally and ethically it’s not right.”