Judge Rules That Hospital Can’t Evict Quadriplegic

A judge on Wednesday refused to allow Northridge Hospital Medical Center to evict a quadriplegic patient who depends on a mechanical ventilator to breathe and ordered the facility and the patient’s attorneys to cooperate in finding him a new home.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kurt J. Lewin postponed until next month a hearing on the hospital’s effort to move Shervin Firouzi, 24, out of the facility. He said the delay would give both sides time to find a nursing home to provide for his special medical needs.

“Mr. Firouzi is certainly not going to be put out on the sidewalk with his belongings, so we might as well postpone this until you can come up with a placement,” Lewin told the hospital’s attorneys.

Spinal Cord Severed

Firouzi, whose spinal cord was severed in a diving accident, has lived at the hospital since November, 1986. Although Firouzi’s brain was not injured, he depends on a mechanical ventilator to breathe and needs 24-hour nursing attention. He gets around in a wheelchair controlled by a chin device and has painted canvases that have been displayed in galleries.

Lewin said Firouzi will stay at the hospital until a nursing home or other facility that can provide appropriate care is found. But, he told Firouzi’s attorney, “it may be that a safe and legal and licensed facility is less than ideal and less than that most desired by Mr. Firouzi.”

A key dispute between the two sides is what kind of care Firouzi needs. The hospital contends that Firouzi no longer needs acute care but has refused to accept transfer to a skilled nursing home willing and able to safely care for him.

The hospital says Firouzi, who does not require emergency care, is occupying one of four beds reserved for patients needing acute rehabilitation treatment.

The hospital’s attorneys last month asked Lewin to order Firouzi not to speak to the press about his plight. They said publicity had caused one nursing home to change its decision to accept him as a patient. The judge turned down the request for a temporary restraining order.

Firouzi and his attorney have argued that nursing homes proposed by the hospital are staffed by nurses who do not understand spinal injuries or are not trained to repair Firouzi’s breathing device in an emergency. They say the device is prone to minor breakdowns and must be fixed within two minutes to prevent brain damage to Firouzi.

Final Determination

If the two sides cannot agree on whether a proposed nursing home is safe, Lewin said, he will make a final determination based on testimony from medical experts.

Lauren W. Wilson, an attorney for the medical center, said Lewin’s ruling was “very fair.” Outside the courtroom, she told Firouzi: “I think we can turn a new page and have some cooperation in coordinating our efforts.”

The hospital charges private insurers $1,760 a day for care such as that provided for Firouzi. During his first months at the hospital, Medi-Cal paid Northridge $540 a day. That amount was later cut to $140 a day. In January, the state program stopped paying anything. Wilson said Medi-Cal would pay $250 a day for Firouzi’s care in a nursing home.

But Marilyn Holle, an attorney with Protection and Advocacy Inc., a Glendale law firm that represents disabled people, said nursing homes that provide the services Firouzi needs are rare. Because of that shortage, she said, dozens of children and adults with conditions similar to Firouzi’s are patients in California hospitals.

In documents Holle filed with the court, a Los Angeles-based group called Advocacy Group for Ventilator Dependent Persons said there are 82 such patients in the 10 hospitals that belong to the group. In another affidavit, the operator of a residential care facility for such patients said she knows of at least 14 people, including Firouzi, who are in hospitals awaiting outside placement.

Lawsuit Filed

Holle said Firouzi and others with similar conditions can be cared for best at home with around-the-clock nursing. The state Department of Health Services agreed last year to pay for such care for Firouzi but later changed its rules and declared him ineligible, Holle said. She said she has filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court on Firouzi’s behalf asking that the department’s decision be overturned.

If Firouzi wins the case, he would live with his sister, Doreen, in Canoga Park. Doreen, a secretary, said she has learned how to care for her brother and wants him to live with her. Nurses would be hired to provide additional care.

“I’ve never wanted to make Northridge a bad name,” Firouzi said. “The staff is great, and I am grateful for all that the Northridge staff has done for me.”

He said he is pleased with Lewin’s ruling. “Rather than making another war, he said to get together and find another place for me, and I think that’s the best answer anyone could ask for.”