The family of an Indian American nurse, who faces a long road to recovery after being brutally attacked by a patient leaving essentially every bone in her face broken, has demanded change.
Leelamma Lal, 67, dreamed of being a nurse since she was a child and has worked at Palms West Hospital in Palm Beach for 21 years, according to Fox13.
Her daughter Cindy Joseph, who is a physician, told the channel in the past her mother would occasionally have a patient raise their voice or yell at her, but nothing turned physical until Feb. 18. That’s when, according to a probable cause affidavit, 33-year-old Stephen Scantlebury brutally attacked Lal in a room at Palms West Hospital.
Joseph, a neurologist, rushed to Palm Beach County from Melbourne with her family but it wasn’t until a day later, when she read the arrest report, that she learned what had happened to her mother, who raised Joseph and her two siblings as a single parent while she worked for nine years to become a registered nurse, according to Palm Beach Post.
Lal was caring for Scantlebury, a Wellington man who had been evaluated at the hospital for mental-health issues under the state’s Baker Act. Upon entering his room, Scantlebury jumped on top of Lal and hit her repeatedly, with fists fracturing “essentially every bone in her face” before fleeing the hospital.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies arrested him on an attempted murder charge as he ran along Southern Boulevard near Royal Palm Beach dressed only in shorts, a group of nurses and law-enforcement offers trailing behind him. The sheriff’s office also has placed a hate-crime enhancement on Scantlebury’s charges, saying he made reference to Lal’s gender, race or religion before the attack. It did not specify which one.
Lal remains in critical condition and could lose her eyesight. She will need extensive facial reconstruction surgeries, Joseph told the newspaper.
“I was in disbelief and I was angry,” Joseph said at the offices of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, the law firm the family has retained to weigh its legal options. “This is unimaginable. As a health care worker, I would never imagine ever happening at a hospital.”
Joseph and her brother, Chris Lal, are now calling for “urgent” improvements to hospital security to protect nurses and health care workers from similar tragedies.
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Karen Terry, the attorney working with the Lal family, said Palms West lacked the appropriate security measures to prevent the Feb. 18 attack. The firm said the hospital shouldn’t even have been treating the patient because it is not a facility that receives patients under the Baker Act, which allows for a 72-hour involuntary hospitalization for those who might harm others or themselves.
Ever since the attack, Joseph and Lal have received an outpouring of messages from patients that they remember how their mother had cared for them and how she was an amazing nurse.
Joseph says her mother was able to have her entire family gathered around her at the hospital as she awaits surgery. She added the family is staying at her mother’s house and her grandchildren keep asking her, “Where is Amma?”
“She’s not going to be the same,” Joseph said. “It’s going to affect her emotionally, cognitively, physically. All aspects of everything of her life is going to be affected.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe to help cover medical expenses and any other financial burdens caused by this attack has been raised $188,00 of a target amount of $200,000.
“We are reaching out today with a heavy heart to share the story of Leela, a dedicated 67 year old nurse who was violently attacked during her shift,” the page set by a family friend stated .
“As many of you know, nurses and healthcare workers put their lives on the line every day to care for others, and tragically, Leela became the victim of an unprovoked attack.”
“This assault has resulted in significant life altering head trauma including several facial bone fractures, brain bleeds, and severe eye injuries, requiring ICU level care with plan for multiple facial reconstructive surgeries,” it said.
“The emotional and financial toll of this attack is overwhelming,” the page noted. “As the medical community, we have the power to come together and provide the support she desperately needs to heal and move forward. Together, we can help Leela recover from this unimaginable ordeal and show her that she is not alone.”