Warner v. Kiowa County Hospital Authority

BRIGHTMIRE, Judge.

She was a frail, 90-pound wisp of a woman when admitted to Kiowa County Hospital on Thursday, January IS, 1970, with an infected third-degree burn on her left elbow. A few days later, while under the influence of potent tranquilizing and analgesic drugs administered to combat pain and a condition of “alcoholic psychosis,” the 61-year-old patient climbed over erected bedrails and fell causing multiple fractures of her right femur and hip joint —an injury requiring two later surgical operations and resulting in a shortened, right leg.

This lawsuit—brought by Mr. and Mrs. Warner…