$35 Million Lawsuit Against Chattanooga Health Facility

An attorney has filed a $35 million lawsuit in Hamilton County against "The Health Care Center at Standifer Place" (Standifer Place) on behalf of the family of Robert Allen Young.

The suit filed by attorney Robin Flores says that Standifer Place is responsible for the death of Young, a disabled man. The suit says Young was a long-term care patient at Standifer Place and his "last place of residence was within the confines of Standifer Place."

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Rana Reynolds, Young's sister and Administrator of his estate.

The suit says that Young was taken to Erlanger Hospital for reported "fever and seizure." It says a doctor there diagnosed Young with a skull fracture, epidural hematoma with mass effect and internal gastro-intestinal bleeding and they could not explain the GI bleeding as a consequence of seizure.

His cause of death was listed as "respiratory failure as a result of skull fracture and hematoma."

The suit says that Standifer Place did not notify next of kin of Young's death. It says relatives called Standifer Place for as much as a month after his death to check on him and says that "Standifer Place told each person, on each call, that decedent was ok and to come see him."

It was only after someone did go to visit that they discovered he had died and had been buried in a Hamilton County pauper's grave. During an ensuing investigation which took nearly a year, Young's body was disintered and Hamilton County Medical Examiner Frank King ruled the death "a homicide due to blunt force trauma inconsistent with a fall."

The lawsuit says Standifer Place should be held liable for:

• Wrongful Death
  
• Battery
  
• Assault
  
• Tort of Outrage
  
• Fraud
  
• Misrepresentation
  
• Negligent Hiring
  
• Negligent Retention
  
• Negligence
  
• Negligence per se
  
• Violation of TN Adult Protection Act
  
• Violation of TN Medical Malpractice Act
  
• Civil Conspiracy
  
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress
  
• Loss of consortium

In an October 16 NewsChannel9.com story, the administrator at Standifer Place, John Strawn, issued a statement saying they continue to fully cooperate with any and all investigations. Strawn said, "We were privileged to provide care and treatment for this young man for over a year without incident. From both internal and external investigations that have been conducted thus far, there is no evidence that supports any inappropriate action by this facility."