Southeast ADA Center
2011
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On November 28, 2007, Susan Liese, accompanied by her husband, went to the emergency room at Indian River Memorial Hospital (“Hospital”) due to dizziness and chest pains. Both Mr. and Mrs. Liese have hearing impairments and communicate primarily through sign language.
Mrs. Liese claimed that she did not understand the nature of her condition and that hospital staff refused her repeated requests for a sign language interpreter. For example, hospital staff conducted a battery of tests on Mrs. Liese but did not tell her why they were necessary. After the tests, a doctor informed her that she needed emergency gall bladder surgery and explained the surgery “through a combination of speaking, pantomime, and note-writing.” Mrs. Liese testified that at this point she requested an interpreter, but the doctor gave no response.
After this meeting, Mrs. Liese sent a text message to her daughter Nancy explaining that she was to undergo emergency surgery and that no interpreter had been provided. Nancy then called the hospital to request an interpreter for her mother. A nurse responded that “they were working on it” and that a “video box” that was as good as an interpreter would be provided.
The next day, Mrs. Liese underwent successful surgery to remove her gallbladder. Mrs. Liese testified that after the surgery, the same doctor visited her, looked at her chart, and told her she could go home. She added that she could not understand the rest of what he had said.
In November of 2009, Mrs. and Mr. Liese brought a suit against the hospital alleging it had failed to provide a sign language interpreter necessary to ensure effective communication in violation of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Lieses requested compensatory damages, which are only available under § 504 if the hospital committed intentional discrimination. The District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted the hospital’s motion for summary judgment, holding that while the hospital may have been negligent, negligent conduct was not sufficient to show a violation of § 504. The Lieses appealed the District Court’s ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
https://adasoutheast.org/court-decisions/liese-v-indian-river-county-hospital-district
Keywords: discriminatory intent, effective communication, interpreter, legal concepts, medical and health care