Inset: Ada Chapman Doss (Tuscaloosa Memorial Park and Chapel). Background: The DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Google Maps).
A woman was leaving her nurse shift at an Alabama hospital and speaking on the phone with her husband when a patient approached and killed her, according to a new lawsuit.
Ada Chapman Doss, 27, was not protected by the hospital when 41-year-old Matthew Taylor was allowed to “roam freely” around the medical center with a weapon, according to the lawsuit brought by her husband. Taylor and the DCH Health Care Authority are among those named in the complaint.
On May 12, Doss was walking to the south parking lot of DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, where she worked as a nurse.
“As customary, she called her husband to discuss their respective [work] days, dinner plans and evening routines for their 6-month-old and two-year-old daughters,” the lawsuit states.
“Unbeknownst to” Doss, Taylor had been brought into the hospital”s emergency room earlier that day by someone “complaining of a manic episode,” the complaint goes on. Doss’ estate says the hospital and its security personnel were warned about Taylor’s alleged “manic and erratic behavior” but that they still “failed to assess the security threat and act to locate Taylor.”
Taylor allegedly left the hospital’s emergency room entrance area and was able to “roam freely” around the campus “unmonitored for hours.” No one found him even though he was “shirtless, shoeless and armed,” the lawsuit continues.
It is unclear where he got the alleged weapon.
“That afternoon, as she was walking to her vehicle located in the DCH South parking lot, and speaking to her husband by phone, Ada Doss’ voice filled with fear and panic as Taylor approached her armed with a gun,” the complaint goes on. “Tragically, Ada’s husband, Andrew Doss, was forced to endure hearing his wife’s last words of, ‘please don’t, I have babies’, seconds before Taylor shot and killed Ada.”
The complaint — in addition to claiming wrongful death — alleges that the defendants acted negligently. Doss’ husband and estate seek compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial.
Taylor was later arrested and indicted on charges of capital murder, first-degree robbery and illegal possession of a firearm, area NBC affiliate WVTM reported.
