Jury orders hospital to pay $$$$$$$

Jury orders hospital to pay $$$$$$$

by Susan Borreson

May 25, 1993 - Beaumont Enterprise

An Orange health care worker who contended he suffered brain damage in a fall from a hospital chair won $$$$$$$ Monday from St. Elizabeth Hospital.

A Jefferson County jury of eight women and four men deliberated three hours and 15 minutes over two days before awarding $$$$$$$ in compensatory damages to Floyd Eugene Graham, 38.

The 172nd District Court jury found the hospital's negligence caused Graham to fall from a recliner in the neurointensive care unit on Feb. 17, 1989.

Graham had entered the hospital six days earlier after suffering a head injury in a one-car accident in Vidor, said his attorney, Clay Dugas.

Dugas argued Graham's nurse should have tied restraints on his wrists and around his waist before placing him in a recliner. The nurses's notes stated Graham at the time was disoriented and weak, Dugas said. Graham's mother, Mary Louise Rawls, had asked a nurse the day before Graham's fall to use restraints, testimony showed.

The nurse then left Graham to attend to another patient, said Beaumont attorney Patricia Chamblin, who represented the hospital. Another ICU nurse testified she saw Graham fall and immediately helped him back in the chair she said.

Dugas argued the fall dislocated Graham's neck and caused further brain swelling. Chamblin argued, Graham's auto accident caused all his brain damage.

Graham worked as a home health care provider for an elderly Silsbee man at the time of the accident, Dugas said.

Chamblin said she will recommend that St. Elizabeth ask for a new trial.