Paralyzed patient sues Community Hospital Anderson over emergency treatment

A Community Hospital Anderson patient is suing the health care provider, alleging that it didn’t provide a proper emergency room screening and failed to detect a condition that left him permanently paralyzed.

Plaintiff Bill Foy says a hospital emergency room physician who treated him in 2024 after he was injured in a fall diagnosed muscle spasms despite Foy being numb from his chest down, according to the suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Community Health Network, which oversees Community Hospital Anderson, declined to comment due to pending litigation.

Foy said he noticed a numbness in his legs that was progressing upward, which ended with him being unable to control his bladder.

The doctor ordered a CT scan without contrast of Foy’s spine, which came back clean, according to the lawsuit, which noted that the physician did not request further testing of Foy’s spine and did not consult specialists.

Foy then went to IU Ball Memorial Hospital ER later that day. He told medical personnel he had been to Community earlier. He was treated by Dr. Gregory Taylor who expressed concern about Foy’s condition.  Taylor believed Foy’s numbness was caused by an epidural abscess.

Taylor ordered two MRIs of Foy’s spine, one with and one without contrast. The MRI showed Foy had inflammation and an abscess in the thoracic area of his spine, according to court documents. The abscess was compressing Foy’s spinal cord.

Foy underwent surgery at Ball Memorial to relieve the compression of his spinal cord, which was partially successful.

“The surgery relieved the compression of Foy’s spinal cord,” the lawsuit stated. “However, because of the delay in diagnosis and treatment … Foy was unable to regain function and remained paralyzed.”