A Canton mother has filed a lawsuit against the Hospital Corporation of America after her baby was born with a brain injury that left him with disabilities. The suit, filed in Buncombe County last week [Sept.23], Ashley Smathers, wife of Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, alleges that Mission Hospital “knowingly and intentionally” placed “profits over patient safety” by reducing the number of available staff at the hospital during the birth of her son March 19, 2020, leaving him with cerebral palsy for the rest of his life. According to the suit, during that process Stone’s fetal heart monitor began to show “increasingly concerning signs” of distress consistent with a lack of adequate oxygen supply.
-0-