Patient Faces Lawsuit for Refusing to Leave Conn. Hospital
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center has filed a lawsuit against a patient who refused to leave the facility despite being discharged.
Margo Smith initially checked into the hospital on Sept. 22 with pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. Four days later, doctors discharged her; however, she refused to leave. Only after Smith’s healthcare provider sent a special bed to her home did the patient leave — 23 days after physicians released her, ABC News reports.
The lawsuit states that Smith refused to leave St. Francis because she claimed she did not have adequate facilities at home. Administrators assert that Smith removed her hospital bed from her domicile so that the hospital could buy her a new, $37,000 bed.
Additionally, hospital workers maintain that the patient was verbally and physically abusive to staff and often became belligerent and disruptive, prompting numerous complaints from other patients.
Smith denies any claims that she was an abusive patient.
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