Family sues hospital in UT Martin meningitis case

WSMV (Channel 4 out of Nashville) just aired a report about the family of UT Martin student Jodi Woods suing Volunteer General Hospital claiming wrongful death of their daughter in 2006. The plaintiff alleges that the hospital staff refused emergency care, categorizing her as a “drama queen”. The family is seeking $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Woods died after being airlifted to Jackson Medical Center. The cause of death was determined to be bacterial meningitis.

News of her death caused quite a bit of concern in Union City, Tenn., where I worked at the local newspaper at the time. Having been to the hospital as a visitor and to bring patients, it comes as no surprise that allegations of negligence by the nursing staff have surfaced.

Update: Family Sues Hospital After Daughter’s Death


2 Responses to “Family sues hospital in UT Martin meningitis case”

  1. Samantha Says:
    October 15th, 2007 at 8:06 pm

    I wouldn’t doubt that many young women have their first migraines while in college and run to the ER at Volunteer for treatment, and some of them are “drama queens.” I know I chauffeured one there. Dramatic or not, nobody goes to the ER for fun – the mere act of going through those doors is a statement, and that statement is either, “Today I feel worse than I’ve felt in most of my life,” or “I think something is terribly wrong.”

    I think we also remember my post-cholecystectomy visit when I had a stomach bug complicated by the total lack of a gallbladder, couldn’t keep any fluid down, and lost almost ten pounds in a day – nobody came to deal with me even when my heart started racing, nobody bothered to tell you where I was, and I was dismissed with a simple shot of an anti-nausea med.

    Between that, the way Jodi was treated and how much they charged someone else we know for an outpatient surgery, I’m in favor of firing the entire medical and management staff and starting over.

  2. Susan Says:
    October 30th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

    I have known Jodi’s parents for around 35 years and my heart goes out to them especially after learning the details of what Jodi experienced as a patient at Volunteer Community Hospital near the UT Martin Campus in Martin, Tennessee. It is horrific to think that someone presenting with the symptoms that Jodi had wouldn’t have immediately been treated for possible menegitis. You would think,especially with this being a hospital that serves many college students,and with all the information on the news, in the newspapers and all through the media especially in the last few years warning of the dangers and numerous cases of menegitis, especially in the college communities. College students have been advised repeatedly about the importance of taking precautions for this deadly disease. You would think that an ER, especially one that is this closely located to a college, would recoginize the symptoms that Jodi did present with when she arrived at their “facility”. Jodi’s mother who is a nurse even suspected menegitis with the information she was given over the phone, only to find out that her daughter, instead of receiving perhaps life-saving treatment for menegitis, was instead strapped, both arms and both legs, with leather bindings to the bed and left alone to suffer this terrible disease. With all the information about menegitis and college kids you would think that even a CNA, an LPN and absolutely an RN or a doctor would know her symptoms all indicated possible menegitis. I still have trouble believing that this child laid there in this “facility” for five hours and suffered this kind of pain. I wonder if the attending physician and nurse who allowed Jodi to suffer what had to be unimaginable pain the last few hours of her short life are able to sleep at night? I wonder if they have children and how they would feel if someone allowed their child to die in this manner when they could have so easily helped her and perhaps saved her life and at the very least not have left her to suffer like she did. What does the phrase First do no harm mean? How can someone call themselves a nurse and sit and watch someone suffer and do nothing? I cannot imagine arriving at an ER where my child had been for five hours expecting to find them being treated for possible menegitis because they were, in fact, at a hospital, only to find that they had received no treatment to fight the disease but had been strapped, arms and legs, to a bed while they whinced in pain. I can not in my mind imagine how Jodi’s parents felt when they saw their daughter and my heart aches for them. I will keep them in my prayers and I hope the doctor and nurse (or doctors and nurses) who stood by just feet away from this dying child get what they deserve.
    I also think that this story should be published in newspapers all across the mid-south and especially high school newspapers so that future college students and their parents can be aware of the type of “facility” that their children may depend on for emergency medical treatment should they decided to attent college at UT Martin.
    If anyone in that ER that day was indeed a “Drama Queen” it was the person who’s decision to strap this dying child to a bed. I am wondering if you are indeed pleased with yourself and the drama that you did in fact cause? I wish the Court would rule that all those responsible for the senseless suffering of this beautiful young woman be made to have the name “JODI” tattoed on their arms where they would have to see it all day, so they would have to think about Jodi every single day of the rest of their lives.