Man dies weeks after being injured at a Fort Worth Wal-Mart

A Watauga man who was found lying on the ground at an east Fort Worth Wal-Mart in June has died of head injuries.

Marty Britton, 55, died at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at his home in Watauga, the Tarrant County medical examiner reported. The cause and manner of death were not listed.

Britton had been hospitalized since June 12 and had repeated brain surgeries, his wife, Rhonda Britton, said Thursday. On Monday, doctors said there was nothing more they could do, and he was moved to their home, she said.

“Tomorrow we are going to have a celebration of life for him with a Mexican supper. He loved Mexican food,” she said.

“Then my focus is on getting the person who did this to him. Somebody, somehow, somewhere knows something.”

Britton was found in front of the garden center at the Wal-Mart at 8401 Anderson Boulevard shortly before 7 p.m. June 12, police reported.

Britton told officers that he was “jumped” in the parking lot, police said.

Surveillance video recorded Britton parking his pickup and walking toward the store, police wrote in a news release. A black car that looked similar to a smart car drove up next to him and stopped.

The driver can be seen getting out of the car and then he “possibly struck the victim with his fists,” according to police. It is not clear whether a passenger also attacked Britton, but the passenger can be seen getting back into the car, which drove south through the parking lot, police said.

Britton refused treatment by paramedics called to the scene. He drove home and repeated to his wife he was “jumped” in the parking lot, Rhonda Britton said.

“They hit him and knocked him to the ground,” she said. “His head hit the pavement.”

Rhonda Britton, who is a paramedic, said she recognized signs of head injury so she drove her husband to a freestanding emergency room near their house. A CT scan found bleeding in his brain.

He was transferred to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth where, on June 14, part of his brain was surgically removed as his head swelled with blood, she said. Britton was in intensive care at the hospital for several weeks.

After the surgery, another CT scan showed fluid in his head. After the fluid was drained the first time, he appeared to be getting better, she said.

“After the first surgery, he could kind of whisper, he would give me kisses, but then I noticed after his last fluid drain that he didn’t know who I was, Rhonda Britton said. “It was devastating.”

The two had been married 1 1/2 years.

After medical personnel at Harris told her that there was nothing else they could do for him and that he would have to go to a nursing home, she instead had him moved to their home.

“He wouldn’t want to be in a nursing home,” she said.

She talked to him during the two days she had with him at home.

“I was right at his bedside when he passed,” she said.

The family has created a GoFundMe account to help pay for Marty Britton’s funeral

A Facebook page called “Justice for Marty” also was created.

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Man dies weeks after being injured at a Fort Worth Wal-Mart."