WARWICK — The doctor who treated Michael J. Woods on the day he died of heart failure in the Kent Hospital emergency room testified Tuesday that she’d ordered that he be put on a heart monitor, but that her order wasn’t followed.

Woods’ estate, managed by his brother, the actor James Woods, is suing Kent Hospital for negligence in Michael Woods’ death in the hospital emergency room on July 26, 2006.

Tuesday was taken up by testimony from Dr. Kelli A. Naylor, the doctor who took over Woods’ treatment at 5:30 p.m. that day, about an hour after Woods had arrived at the emergency room.

Naylor testified that when she saw him, Woods spoke of symptoms — sore throat and vomiting that had come on suddenly — that could have been caused by several life-threatening conditions, not just the heart condition that killed him.

In his questioning, Mark B. Decof, the lawyer for the Woods estate, zeroed in on Woods’ heart-related symptoms — including an abnormal heartbeat revealed by an electrocardiogram — and questioned why the heart issues were not dealt with more swiftly. A cardiologist called by Decof Monday testified that had Woods been put on a heart monitor and given prompt treatment, he likely would have survived.

Naylor said at the time she was trying to figure out if Woods was suffering from a torn esophagus or had a foreign body there, likewise fatal conditions if untreated.

“I had another piece to a large puzzle,” Naylor said of the abnormal heartbeat shown by the EKG. “I could not say with any degree of certainty. There could be other strains on his system, based on his history, on what he told me.”

It was after the electrocardiogram, at about 5:44 p.m., that Naylor said that she ordered the cardiac monitor and Woods’ transfer to the emergency room’s medical care unit, which had the monitors.

But the unit was full, so Woods, after being brought back from the x-ray department, was put on a gurney that was parked in a hallway near a nurses’ station. Naylor said she didn’t find out Woods wasn’t on a heart monitor until 7:10 p.m., when Woods’ fiancée called for help as his heart started to fail.

He was then wheeled through the full medical care unit to the emergency room’s cardiopulmonary resuscitation room, where, after about 25 minutes of trying to restart Woods’ heart, she said she declared him dead.

Naylor said it was the nurses’ responsibility to tell her that the unit had been full and that her order wasn’t followed. Since no one had told her otherwise, she said she assumed Woods was on a monitor.

Decof questioned why Naylor hadn’t taken it on herself to check on Woods’ condition or looked at x-rays she had ordered earlier. Naylor said she was checking the station where the results were posted and when they weren’t there, she treated other emergency room patients and then looked again for the results. She said Woods died before she got the x-rays.

The afternoon session was delayed as Associate Justice Daniel A. Procaccini questioned jurors about a man protesting outside the courthouse. The man, who in an interview identified himself as Paul Croft and said he grew up in Warwick with James Woods, carried a large sign that read “Kent Hospital: I wouldn’t even take my dog there.”

Seven jurors said they saw the sign, but they all said it would have no effect on their objectivity.

Croft said he was there on his own to protest what he said was poor care his mother received at the hospital for appendicitis two years ago.

“I hope this doesn’t hurt Jimmy’s case,” he said.

jhill@projo.com