Family and Baylor Scott & White come to agreement over Eddie Bernice Johnson’s death

By Arcelia Martin
https://www.dallasnews.com

The family of the late U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Baylor Scott & White have reached a deal over allegations that the hospital chain and rehab center were at fault for the congresswoman’s death in December, an attorney for the family said Thursday.

Six months ago, the family said it intended to sue Baylor Scott & White Health System and Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation, alleging that negligent care at the hospital’s rehabilitation center led to Johnson’s death. Kirk Johnson, the son of the Dallas congresswoman, and family attorney Les Weisbrod announced a resolution Thursday between the family and the medical facilities.

“We are at peace,” said Kirk Johnson, choking back tears. “We have to accept God’s will, but her initiatives, her interests will continue to live.”

Johnson, a trailblazing Black woman who spent decades as North Texas’ most powerful Democrat and who was the first registered nurse elected to Congress, died of a bone infection in her lumbar spine. She was 89.

The resolution includes renaming a scholarship program that allows the hospital system to sponsor employees seeking an advanced degree in nursing after Johnson and the creation of a nonprofit foundation run by her family that will champion causes that she advocated for. The Eddie Bernice Johnson Lives Foundation will support organizations that promote women’s rights, stable families, education and peace initiatives.

Baylor Scott & White suggested to the family’s lawyers the renaming of the scholarship and the formation of a charitable foundation, Weisbrod said. The family and lawyers would not discuss the details of the resolution, including financial commitments from the hospital. Baylor Scott & White made an undisclosed initial contribution to the foundation, Weisbrod said.

“It’s an excellent resolution considering the caps that are in place in the state of Texas, and it’s the resolution that will allow the family to do good in the congresswoman’s name,” Weisbrod said at a news conference.

The Texas cap outlines that in most malpractice cases, a person can win no more than $250,000 against Texas physicians for their pain and suffering, per a 20-year-old state law and constitutional amendment backed by insurers and medical groups. It leads to Texans looking to sue over medical malpractice being turned away by trial lawyers because the allegations are too costly to litigate compared with how much can be won in court.

During the news conference, Weisbrod held up a copy of a January Dallas Morning News article entitled, “The price of a life: Congresswoman’s death is drawing attention to Texas malpractice cap.”

“One of the important things here is that sometimes the court of public opinion can be more powerful than the court of law, particularly when we’re dealing with these unfair caps on damages in medical malpractice death cases, ” Weisbrod said.

The rule has been called a way to shield doctors from baseless lawsuits and exorbitant verdicts and to keep them from leaving the state, but malpractice attorneys say the ceiling shortchanges victims and defers accountability.

Johnson, often called EBJ, underwent extensive back surgery in September to correct degenerative conditions that would have made the longtime congresswoman unable to walk, Weisbrod said. Johnson’s surgeon recommended that she go to Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation after the operation for , physical therapy and redressing her wound to prevent infections.

Before an appointment Kirk Johnson had made to meet his mother’s caseworker at the rehabilitation center, his mother called him saying she needed help and no one responded when she repeatedly pressed a call button. According to the family and their lawyers, EBJ was lying in her own feces and urine. The family’s lawyers estimated that EBJ was alone for about an hour before she received medical care.

In medical records, Johnson’s orthopedic surgeon wrote she “was found in bed sitting in her own feces, which was not being cleaned up.” Days later, the doctor wrote, she began having “copious purulent drainage” — a sign of an infection — from the surgical incision.

The family had said the hospital’s neglect caused the infection and Johnson’s subsequent death.

Weisbrod said he’s been assured by the hospital that policies and procedures are now in place to prevent the neglect originally alleged.

Weisbrod said that in the upcoming legislative session, he and the family plan to work across party lines to raise the malpractice caps to $500,000 to keep up with inflation.

“We have got to continue working so that those caps are changed, so that every Texan could get a more favorable result for the loss of their loved one and not just those that are related to a congresswoman,” Weisbrod said.

Maggie Prosser and Marin Wolf contributed to this report.

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.