A nurse practitioner has filed a lawsuit against Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., alleging the hospital failed to protect her from a violent patient last year, according to local TV station WMC 5.
Angelos Washington is accused of attacking several nurses at two Memphis hospitals last year. One of those nurses, Bobby Stewart, has filed a civil suit against Baptist Memorial Hospital. She claims the hospital failed to initiate procedures it had in place to protect workers and has taken no responsibility for the attack, according to the report.
Mr. Washington allegedly hit Ms. Stewart twice while in the ER at Baptist Memorial. He broke her hand and two bones in her neck, according to the report.
The lawsuit alleges Mr. Washington was known to be a problem at Baptist Memorial. The physician who treated Ms. Stewart after the attack said Mr. Washington had threatened to kill him the year prior, Ms. Stewart told WMC 5.
Regarding the lawsuit, Baptist Hospital released the following statement to WMC 5:
"We empathize with the concerns Ms. Stewart has raised, however for obvious reasons, we do not comment on pending litigation. We are firmly committed to protecting all team members, patients and visitors in our facilities. Unfortunately this is an issue that hospitals around the country are facing because we all must treat every patient who comes to our ER. We are doing everything we can to solve it, including providing training to all our staff, including our security team. We are thankful that Ms. Stewart continues to work in our ER despite this incident."
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