Image Credit: Timothy Hill / Facebook & Ballad Health / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A recently filed federal lawsuit alleges that Ballad Health is responsible for the August 11 death of Eddie Tester, then-Sheriff of Johnson County.
The suit was filed by Knoxville lawyer Russ Egli on behalf of Tester’s widow, Brenda Tester, and names the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) and Commissioner Dr. Ralph Alvarado as defendants along with Ballard and its doctors.
The plaintiff is seeking $7.5 million in damages, along with a declaratory judgment that the Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) that Ballad operates under is unconstitutional. Ballad currently has a monopoly on hospital care in the Tri-Cities region.
The TDH is supposed to monitor this situation to determine that the facility is still operating for “public advantage.”
The lawsuit alleges that physicians caused a drop in Tester’s blood levels and hemoglobin on August 10 by doing a liver biopsy while he was on blood thinners. That drop resulted in a fatal heart attack on August 11.
Tester was initially a patient at Sycamore Shoals Hospital in Elizabethton from August 8-9 where a blood clot was found on his lung and he was given a Heparin drip. He was then sent to Johnson City Medical Center for the biopsy.
According to the lawsuit, Ballad Health and the physician who ordered the biopsy “grossly fell outside the standard of care regarding a liver biopsy with a patient who was actively taking Heparin by not evaluating Sheriff Tester to ensure he had no complications from bleeding out due to the Heparin.”
Tester was taken back to Sycamore Shoals that same day, where he was later released with a prescription for an oral blood thinner, Eliquis. He returned by ambulance to Johnson County Community Hospital’s emergency room on August 11. EMTs did CPR for the duration of the trip, which was also administered for another hour at the hospital.
The lawsuit claims that doctors should have been monitoring Tester’s blood counts and should have recognized that they were continuing to drop.
“Had the proper standard of care been followed, Sheriff Tester would not have suffered life ending internal blood loss, which lead (sic) to his cardiac arrest and ultimately his untimely death,” the lawsuit states.
The suit goes on to argue that the state is also at fault, thus the inclusion of the TDH and Alvarado, making this a claim for federal court. The plaintiff alleges that Tester and his wife should be protected by the Affordable Care Act because “under color of law” the state of Tennessee “has plenary control over the Defendant hospitals herein pursuant to Tennessee’s COPA.”
The argument is that TDH and Alvarado have not adequately provided “continuing supervision” over Ballad Health and its hospitals, allowing them to harm the public rather than serve as a “public advantage.”
“By Tennessee allowing the Defendants herein to monopolize and in doing so harm the public Tennessee’s COPA is unconstitutional and cannot meet constitutional scrutiny in any sense of the word,” the suit states.
Ballad officials responded to a request for a statement by saying that they do not provide comment on pending litigation.
2 Responses
The TDH and it’s commissioner, along with many hospital administrators in Tennessee actively participated in collusion in genocide and violating the civil rights of citizens. I forgot to mention the so called republican governor Lee. These people should be facing possible death penalties for their participation in these heinous crimes against the people. The minimum justice should call for is their arrest , and trials for their crimes against humanity. Of course, the ring leaders are in federal agencies and federal office holders, including Biden and Harris, Mayorkas, Garland, Comey, Wray, Brennan, Fauci and others. The hatchet men for the administration of these evil crimes are as guilty as the ring leaders for the genocide and the civil rights violations day to day as we experienced it here in Tennessee. I will not forget my neighbors who got covid19 and died with vaccinations and dangerous ineffective treatments, while effective treatments were cheap and readily available and being suppressed actively by “authorities”. The unscientific, unhealthy and demeaning masking requirements, denials of services or even admissions for non vaccinated or masking citizens , as well as the public demeaning statements about citizens who were not in ” compliance” by the “authorities”. Then they went along with closing down our economy, our schools and many jobs were effected negatively, all on the advice and “authority” of the state and hospitals leadership. This was a totalitarian response that ignored our bill of rights as citizens of the USA and the state of Tennessee. I equate these people with
the infamous Hitler, DR. Mengele and their comrades and allies, with their similar disregard for the rights of citizens and freedoms that we consider God given here in the USA according to our constitution.
You are 100% correct. All those children of the devil you mentioned. Think they got away with all their evil deeds. Will have their day of reckoning. When they will all stand before God and have to give an account for what they have done.
Revelation 20:12,15 NIV
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.