LITTLE ROCK — A nurse suing in Pulaski County Circuit Court to get her job back at the Arkansas State Hospital said she was fired for leading an investigation into the suicide of a mentally ill patient.
That investigation, she said, led to the dismissal of three other nurses - firings that were reversed on appeal.
“I honestly believe that if I had looked the other way, I’d still have my job,” Susan Lowrey told the sevenwomen and five men hearing evidence in her discrimination and whistle-blower trial against the state-owned hospital and its director, Charles Smith. “We deserve better than this at our State Hospital. Mentally ill people deserve dignity andrespect.”
The proceedings are scheduled to move into their third day at 9:30 a.m. today before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, with Smith on the witness stand.
A nurse for 32 years, Lowrey was fired as assistantnursing director by Smith in May 2009 after about 18 months at the hospital over her supervisor’s objections and despite an absence of previous disciplinary problems. Hospital administrators argue that Lowrey was firedfor poor job performance, suggesting that she has a troubled work history.
Lowrey led an investigation into the October 2008 death of 41-year-old Brenda Lackey Shelton, who died five days after hanging herself with a bedsheet. Lowrey concluded that the nurses were at fault for delaying resuscitation efforts, and they were fired on her recommendation.
The decision was overturned on appeal, with a finding that nursing administrators, including Lowrey, had failed to ensure that the nurses were properly trained.
On the witness standTuesday, Lowrey refused to back down from her assessment, calling their behavior “gross negligence.”
“I cannot support those nurses. I cannot defend them,” Lowrey testified, describing the appeals panel as a “kangaroo court” that never sought her testimony in reaching its conclusions.
The nurses refused to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the stricken Shelton, and the equipment necessary to avoid direct contact with Shelton had been accidentally locked up.
Directed by her attorney, Luther Sutter, to address the Shelton family, Lowrey said she wouldn’t have hesitated to do whatever she could to save Shelton’s life. The family, represented by Sutter, ispursuing a federal lawsuit against Smith, the nurses and a doctor over the death.
“I wish I could’ve been the one there,” Lowrey said, weeping. “I’m so sorry.”
Lowrey said she sat with the stricken Shelton in the emergency room where the woman was on life support.
“I knew her family was on their way,” she said. “I didn’t want her to be alone.”
Lowrey said she was surprised by Smith’s decision to fire her within a week of the nurses being reinstalled. Smith taunted her when she accused him of retaliation for her firing, Lowrey said during her 90 minutes of testimony.
“When Mr. Smith terminated me, I stood up and said this is retaliation and unfair treatment. I’m going to fightthis with everything I have,” she said. “He said, ‘Good, I’ll see you in court.’”
Jurors and the Shelton family also heard emotional testimony from a former nurse-manager at the facility who said Shelton’s death was preventable.
“I felt like we all failed that patient,” Myrna Williams testified Tuesday, her voice breaking. “The lady had red flags when she walked in. It could have been avoided. That patient didn’t have to die.”
A 10-year employee at the hospital who left in May, Williams said she was “livid” over how the nurses who found Shelton handled the situation.
“They laid her on the floor,” she said. “They closed the door and walked off.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/27/2010