A Tacoma hospital worker says an inmate attacked her. Was a guard negligent?
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- A Tacoma General Hospital worker was repeatedly punched by an inmate in 2023, a lawsuit says.
- The complaint alleges that an inattentive correctional officer failed to restrain the inmate.
- The employee purportedly suffered a concussion and other injuries during the assault.
A Tacoma hospital worker claims a state correctional officer failed to prevent her from being attacked by an inmate while she was preparing a routine blood draw in 2023, according to a lawsuit.
Kristen Ryan, a phlebotomist at MultiCare’s Tacoma General Hospital, has sued the state, the Department of Corrections and the officer, alleging their negligence enabled the assault that caused her significant physical and psychological injuries.
The Department of Corrections declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 6 in Pierce County Superior Court. No legal representatives for any of the defendants were identified in court records as of Friday.
The suit alleges that on Oct. 25, 2023, a Washington Corrections Center inmate was a patient at the hospital and inside a room with Ryan and a correctional officer assigned to guard the inmate. The officer was purportedly against the wall farthest from the inmate’s bedside, inattentive and looking down. The inmate’s feet were restrained to the bed but his arms, hands and upper torso were free, according to the suit.
“While Plaintiff Ryan was preparing for the blood draw, having just applied a tourniquet to the inmate’s arm, (the inmate), without provocation or warning, suddenly lunged forward,” the complaint said. “He grabbed Plaintiff Ryan around her chest with his left arm and began to violently and repeatedly punch her in the head, face, and neck with his right hand.”
Ryan raised her hands to shield herself, fled the room and heard the inmate yell out, “I’m coming for your head,” according to the lawsuit, which claimed that the officer in the room only intervened after Ryan had left.
The inmate, whose criminal record in Pierce County includes a 2016 conviction for second-degree theft, had been in custody because of a 40-month sentence related to manufacturing, delivering or possessing drugs in Stevens County, a Department of Corrections spokesperson said.
Ryan reported the incident to Tacoma police five days later, according to a copy of a police report shared with The News Tribune by her attorney. The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office twice declined to file a third-degree assault charge against the inmate, the report showed.
Office spokesperson Adam Faber said Friday that the prosecutor who declined to pursue a criminal case had retired, but Faber didn’t believe the office ever received the alleged victim’s medical records or a witness statement from the correctional officer.
The Prosecuting Attorney’s Office first declined to pursue a charge in November 2023 without Ryan’s medical records or a statement from the correctional officer, the police report said. Prosecution was declined again in March 2024, according to the report.
Attorney Preet Kode, who is representing Ryan in the litigation, said her client couldn’t recall Friday what she had submitted to authorities but did believe she provided a photograph of a bruise on her face. In an interview, Kode said Ryan entrusted the correctional officer with her safety. Since the assault, the Department of Corrections has not changed how it oversees inmate patients in hospitals, she said.
“When something like this happens, somebody should deeply investigate it and put different procedures in place so it doesn’t happen again,” or at least so any attack can be stopped immediately, she said.
The lawsuit, which is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages, said that Ryan suffered a concussion and other injuries to her head, neck and face in the attack, which led to multiple emergency-room visits and debilitating symptoms such as severe headaches and vision changes. She also suffered significant medical expenses; psychological and emotional trauma that required her to seek therapy; and a loss of income and earning capacity due to her injuries, according to the filing.
The suit alleges that there was an institutional failure to establish or enforce adequate policies to safely transport, restrain and supervise high-risk inmates in hospital settings, and an institutional disregard for the known high-risk environment facing medical staff.
“The assault and the resulting injuries and damages to Plaintiff Ryan were the direct and proximate result of the negligence of the Defendants in failing to properly restrain, supervise, and control an inmate known to be in their custody, and in failing to provide for the safety of healthcare workers foreseeably in contact with the inmate,” the suit said.
