Last week we told you WAVE anchor Dawne Gee was suing a local hospital over allegations it mismanaged her treatment. At the time, Gee’s attorney called her hospital visit, “unforgivable and cruel.”
Courthouse News Service has more details about Gee’s visit to Baptist Health Louisville.
After what the lawsuit calls a “sudden onset of severe leg pain,” the anchor for the Louisville NBC affiliate went to an emergency care center which then referred her to Baptist Health.
According to the lawsuit, “Baptist failed to appropriately manage [her pain] in a timely and reasonable manner” and “Baptist’s emergency room nurses negligently inflicted unnecessary severe pain” upon her.”
“Because of Ms Gee’s previous health conditions, she has an indwelling venous Power Port, which is placed in certain patients to allow easy, immediate and virtually painless venous access,” the complaint says. “Ms. Gee had her Power Port information card with her at Baptist, which contains all the details necessary for any healthcare provider to correctly access such a port, if for any reason that provider did not have the necessary training or knowledge to do so.
“Baptist’s emergency department nurse refused to review Ms. Gee’s Power Port instruction card,” the complaint continues. “Baptist’s emergency room nurse then attempted to access the Power Port in a negligent fashion, causing incredible pain to Ms. Gee.”
Gee says the nurse tried to access the indwelling power port several times, but failed to do so, causing her increasingly terrible pain. As a result of failing to properly access the power port, saline solution surged into her tissue, the complaint says.
The more the she complained, the more aggravated the nurse became with her, Gee says.
Finally, her family intervened and another nurse was sent into the room.Gee says the second nurse responded to her swollen appearance, by trying to press the saline solution out through the puncture wounds the first nurse caused.
“This caused excruciating pain,” Gee says, but ultimately, “after additional painful manipulation,” the second nurse was able to correctly access the power port.
Gee says when she was released the next day, she complained of the treatment she’d received, but told nothing could be done to address the conduct of the nursing staff. She claims she was told the nurses would not be disciplined, nor would they be forced to undergo additional training to prevent a similar situation happening to another patient.
Gee is seeking unspecified damages. She is represented by Kirsten Daniel of Clay, Daniel Walton & Adams of Louisville, Kentucky.
A reprensetative (sic) of the hospital could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.