The Associated Press

A Lincoln woman whose son was among the nearly 50 “medically fragile” people moved out of the Beatrice State Developmental Center this year filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging a hospital’s previous treatment left her son near death.

Sandra Ham’s lawsuit alleges that Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center and emergency department physician Thomas Fennessy were negligent in treating her 24-year-old son, who suffered from a swallowing condition.

Ian Ham was taken to the hospital in August 2008 after pulling out his feeding tube, according to the lawsuit filed in Gage County District Court. Sandra Ham alleges the hospital failed to properly re-insert the tube and as a result, her son was left with pneumonia, a collapsed lung and significant secondary infections.

He also suffered trauma by going through the procedure without pain medication and was unnecessarily put in handcuffs as a restraint, she said. Ham alleges the hospital then negligently discharged her son and sent him back to the state center too soon.

She is seeking unspecified damages.

Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center has “painstakingly reviewed Ian Ham’s care” and looks forward to sharing its conclusions with the Ham family, the hospital said in a Tuesday evening statement released by spokeswoman Diane Vicars.

“It is the objective of the hospital and its staff to identify and meet the health care needs of all patients,” the statement said. “The filing of a lawsuit by Ian Ham and his family makes it clear that we have failed to meet their expectations in that regard.”

Fennessy said he hadn’t seen the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon and declined to comment.

The hospital’s treatment put Ian Ham “over the edge of fragility,” said Ham’s attorney, Bruce Mason. Mason is litigation director of Nebraska Advocacy Services, a group that gets federal money to advocate for disabled people.

“He was close to death,” Mason said.

Mason also represents Sandra Ham in her tort claim pending with the State Claims Board. Ham alleges in that claim that Beatrice State Developmental Center staff twice ignored a diagnosis that her son, who is mentally disabled and has diabetes, had a swallowing disorder and that his health deteriorated because he did not receive treatment.

She also says center staff did not inform her of the disorder and instead maintained her son had behavioral problems.

Ian Ham remains hospitalized in Lincoln, but has improved significantly, Mason said.