Mayor Zeb Smathers of Canton, NC, and his family recently filed a medical negligence lawsuit against HCA’s Mission Hospital which alleges a near five-hour wait for an emergency c-section (after 29 hours of labor) nearly killed his wife Ashley, and caused their son Stone to develop cerebral palsy.
The lawsuit alleges that HCA-Mission failed to provide adequate care to Ashley and Stone, even though it has a Level III NICU (the only one in the region) and marketed itself as a “Baby-Friendly” hospital (a designation it received in 2010, long before HCA bought the hospital).
The lawsuit also contends that blaming short staffing on the pandemic would be false because understaffing at HCA-Mission was an issue prior to the pandemic.
The suit references three class action cases that have been brought against Mission that allege monopolistic practices have caused compromised quality of care in the region. Recent update on NC lawsuits.