By ALAN CROWELL
Staff Writer Friday, December 08, 2006

The lawsuit, filed by Melissa I. Ferris in Somerset County Superior Court, states she was fired in December 2004 after she called the Department of Health and Human Services to report poor care provided to a patient of the Skowhegan nursing home who had apparently broken his hip.

The injury occurred on the morning of Nov. 23, according to the lawsuit. Ferris learned of the man's condition in the afternoon, after a patient told her he was crying out in pain.

Ferris, who was a charge nurse in another unit, assessed the patient and determined that he probably fractured his hip, and arranged for him to be taken to Redington-Fairview General Hospital.

According to the lawsuit, Ferris learned from a co-worker that the man had fallen almost five hours earlier and had been put back into his bed without an assessment. He had been crying in pain much of the time since then, according to the lawsuit.

Beginning on Nov. 23, Ferris complained to management at Cedar Ridge that the failure to promptly assess the patient put the patient's health and life at risk, according to the lawsuit.

When a supervisor with no direct or indirect knowledge of the case began preparing an incident report for the Department of Health and Human Services, Ferris also complained about that, the lawsuit contends.

A few days later, Ferris was given "written counseling" in part for treating the fractured hip as an emergency and for her complaints about the way management handled the incident, according to the lawsuit.

Ferris claimed in the lawsuit that at that time she again complained about the failure to properly assess the patient and that it was illegal for a person with no direct or indirect knowledge of an incident to file a report about it.

The lawsuit also claims that because Cedar Ridge had taken no steps to correct the problems, Ferris told management Ferris had no choice but to report the violations to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The next day, Ferris called the Department of Health and Human Services and reported the incident. She was fired several days later, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that Ferris's termination was in retaliation for her complaints. She is asking for damages, including compensatory damages, punitive damages, back pay, reinstatement and attorneys' fees.

An administrator at Cedar Ridge said Thursday he could not comment on the case. A lawyer representing the nursing home did not return calls Thursday afternoon.