Hospital Settles Suits

A Des Moines hospital has settled a lawsuit over its failure to adequately provide sign language interpreters for patients. In one instance, a man was rushed to the emergency room with shortness of breath. But there was no interpreter provided before he died just hours later, even though his wife and a doctor pleaded for one. Hospital officials would only agree to contact two particular interpreters, both of whom were unavailable. The family filed a lawsuit against Mercy Medical as did the family of another deaf patient. In the second case, an interpreter was provided only part of the time. The patient's daughter was an interpreter herself who ended up interpreting for her mother during appointments. In the settlement, the hospital agreed to provide interpreters both in person and through video relay - as well as pay an undisclosed amount of money to the two families.