Preliminary Approval Given for $25M Settlement against Tenet Healthcare

What are you looking for?

New Orleans, LA: Preliminary approval of a $25 million settlement of a class action lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare Corp and subsiaries has been granted by Orleans Parish Chief Judge Rosemary Ledet. The lawsuit was filed following and as a result of Hurricane Katrina in which Tenet's Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans was flooded, and dozens of people, patients and visitors, suffered as a result. A class of plaintiffs represents patients and family of patients who died in the hospital during the storm: 45 patients died during in the hospital during the storm, and doctors later admitted to having used euthanasia on patients, but no criminal charges were brought.

According to a report in the Louisana Record, the lawsuit states that approximately 187 patients and 800 visitors were in the hospital during and after the storm.

The lawsuit alleges that Tenet was liable for failing to adequately prepare the hospital for flooding before Katrina despite warnings from the hospital's maintenance staff. The back-up power source in the hospital failed during the hurricane, as a result of flooding caused when the federally built levees broke, letting floodwater into the city. According to court documents, Tenet had argued that the dangerous environment at the hospital was a result of the failed levees and shoddy government response to the storm.

Tenet staff spent several days urgently seeking help from several federal agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. The settlement releases Tenet and its partners from all liability.