BATON ROUGE – A Gonzales woman alleges her late mother was discriminated against by medical facilities because they did not provide an interpreter.
Katrina Rivers Labouliere, individually and on behalf of the estate of Katherine Smith, filed a complaint on Nov. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against Our Lady of Lake Foundation, Dr. Todd A. Peavy, Women & Children's Hospital of Delaware LLC and Our Lady of the Lake Hospital Inc. alleging that they violated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Rehabilitation Act and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that Smith was deaf and required a sign language interpreter to communicate, but was never provided one for medical visits with Peavy. The plaintiff claims that because Smith did not have an interpreter, she was unable to understand the seriousness of her illness and was not adequately informed of treatments.
The plaintiff holds Our Lady of Lake Foundation, Peavy, Women & Children's Hospital of Delaware LLC and Our Lady of the Lake Hospital Inc. responsible because the defendants allegedly have discriminated and continue to discriminate against her and her late mother on the basis of disability, by denying them meaningful access to the services and benefits that they offer and by refusing to provide auxiliary aids and services necessary to ensure effective communication.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks compensatory damages, plus interest, costs and attorneys’ fees and all other relief that the court finds necessary. She is represented by Andrew D. Bizer, Garret S. DeReus and Marc P. Florman of The Bizer Law Firm in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00785