WEST PALM BEACH — The HCA Florida Palms West Hospital nurse beaten nearly to the point of blindness by a patient in February 2025 is suing the hospital and its security company, saying it did not do enough to protect its staff.
Leelamma Lal, a Palms West nurse for 21 years, is still suffering from double vision a year after the Feb. 18, 2025, attack and likely will need more surgery, her family said.
A year to the day later, the West Palm Beach law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley announced on Wednesday, Feb. 18 that it has sued HCA Palms West and Universal Protection Services, doing business as Allied Universal Security Services, on behalf of Lal. The lawsuit said they ignored previous violent incidents and failed to put security measures in place to prevent the attack.
“The hospital’s security failures were not isolated — they were systemic, predictable, and ignored despite staff pleas and regulatory obligations,” the lawsuit says. It seeks an unspecified amount of damages.
HCA Florida spokesperson Louis Lochte said in a statement the company has not been served a lawsuit and declined comment on specific allegations. Lochte added two separate health care regulatory agencies had reviewed their processes and concluded there were no deficiencies in Palms West’s protocols.
“Today marks a solemn day for HCA Florida Palms West Hospital,” Lochte wrote in the Feb. 18 statement. “Our hearts remain with our nurse colleague and her loved ones, and we continue to keep them in our thoughts.”
Lochte also said Palms West had made security enhancements following the attack, but didn’t provide specifics. “The safety and well-being of our colleagues is and has always been a priority, and any suggestion otherwise would be misguided and false,” his statement said.
Stephen Scantlebury, the Wellington man for whom Lal was caring, is facing an attempted second-degree murder charge. Attorneys for Scantlebury have informed the court they intend to pursue an insanity defense. Family members have said he showed signs of paranoia in the days preceding the attack.
Cindy Joseph, Lal’s daughter, said the tragic event had permanently affected the lives of her mother and their family. She hopes the lawsuit will bring accountability to Palms West and draw attention to health care worker safety.
“Our family believes that protecting those who care for patients should always be a priority, and we hope meaningful steps are taken to strengthen those protections,” said Joseph, a Melbourne physician.
“We also hope that hospitals review and optimize their policies, ensuring that worker safety is prioritized alongside patient care, and that appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent avoidable tragedies.”
Slow recovery for nurse beaten by Palms West patient in 2025
Scantlebury, then 33, arrived at Palms West on Feb. 17 complaining of chest pain. His behavior led doctors to evaluate him for mental-health issues and deemed him a Baker Act patient just after 1:15 p.m. that same day. The Baker Act allows for 72-hour hospitalizations for patients dealing with mental health issues.
The next day, Lal was taking care of Scantlebury in his room on the third floor when he “inexplicably” jumped on top of his bed and hit her repeatedly in the face with his fists, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said. The beating was so extensive that deputies feared it broke nearly every bone in Lal’s face and might leave her blind. He also made references to Lal’s race, the sheriff said; she is of Indian descent.
After the attack, Scantlebury fled the hospital, dressed only in shorts and ran along Southern Boulevard with deputies and nurses chasing behind him before his arrest.
Paramedics flew Lal in critical condition to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where doctors reconstructed her face with titanium plates. Lal then went to Brooks Rehabilitation Center in Jacksonville where a neuropsychologist determined she suffered cognitive impairment due to a traumatic brain injury.
Joseph said her mother is recovering at her Royal Palm Beach home but still has double vision and balance issues that have caused her to lose her independence.
“She was previously extremely sharp, and our family is noticing that she is forgetful after the incident,” Joseph said. “She misses going to the grocery store and shopping freely. She used to go to church every day that she was off from work, and she misses doing this as she finds solace in this.”
“She misses her job. She loved being a nurse and helping others,” Joseph added.
Joseph said Lal is in good spirits and spends most of her time in therapy and doctor appointments. She added her mother’s facial deformities have made Lal self-conscious and also affected her self-esteem.
“She really is the strongest person I know,” Joseph said. “We are happy for the progress she has made but are faced with the hard reality that she will never get back to her pre-injury baseline.”
Over the last year, Lal’s family has celebrated personal milestones in her recovery: Lal returned to Mass at her local church and took her first family trip since the attack to St. Augustine to see the Christmas lights.
“This event has shed even more light for her on how grateful she is to be alive,” Joseph said. “She loves Christmas and was happy to celebrate the holidays with our family.”
Nurse attacked by patient at HCA Palms West sues hospital a year later
The lawsuit filed on Feb. 18 alleges Lal’s attack was a result of a pattern of safety failures at Palm West, where attorneys say administrators and Allied Universal Security Services ignored previous violent incidents and failed to prevent a mental health patient from attacking her.
The lawsuit outlines three incidents before the Lal attack where patients and their family members had assaulted nurses and hospital staff members, and another incident two weeks after Lal’s attack where nurses struggled to restrain another Baker Act patient.
The lawsuit also alleges Palms West lacked basic security measures such as door checks, bag checks or metal detectors and that upper management had denied requests by staff members to improve security.
“There was a history of repeated patterns of violence at this hospital, and despite that, they were focused on heads on beds and their patient census, as opposed to safety of their own employees and the safety of their own patients,” said Karen Terry, the attorney who is repenting Lal.
According to the lawsuit, Palms West would treat and administer Baker Act patients and place them outside emergency rooms while being treated by staff not trained to treat them. HCA Palms West is not a hospital designated to care for Baker Act patients.
HCA Palms West previously said the attack occurred while Scantlebury, who was deemed a Baker Act patient a day before, was waiting to be transferred to an approved hospital. Terry, however, said a request of outgoing calls from Palms West about Scantlebury found only one and it didn’t appear to concern a transfer.
The lawsuit also alleges the Allied Universal officers were unarmed and lacked the “appropriate training and tools to physically intervene in violent situations,” and that the company had no security presence on upper patient floors.
The day of the attack, Scantlebury was placed in a corner room without either physical or chemical restraint, out of view from the nurses’ station, according to the lawsuit. His placement, combined with the absence of security on the floor and ineffective monitoring, left Lal “vulnerable as a sitting duck,” it said.
Lal was not informed that Scantlebury was a Baker Act patient, according to the lawsuit, and “the deliberate concealment by HCA prevented Lal from exercising informed judgment as to whether or not treat the patient.”
The lawsuit says Lal’s attack was “foreseeable and preventable” if Palms West had put security measures in place to prevent the attack.
Tery said that since Lal’s attack, hundreds of health care professionals employed by HCA have reached out to her office to denounce a lack of security measures in their hospitals.
“We need health care providers,” Tery said. “And if we have droves of them leaving out of fear for their safety, then we’re not going to get proper, timely care.”
Joseph said health care workers and nurses deserve to have their safety prioritized and can’t be expected to provide exceptional patient care if they do not feel safe in their work environment.
“It is essential that when nurses raise safety concerns, those concerns are heard and addressed proactively — before a sentinel event occurs. Every profession carries risks, but what happened to my mom goes FAR beyond what should ever be considered a routine occupational hazard for a nurse,” her statement said.
“We are very grateful that she is still here with us,” Joseph added. “At times, I wonder what could have happened if my mom’s attacker did not leave after beating her. She could have died while waiting for outside armed law enforcement to arrive.”
Valentina Palm covers immigration and Palm Beach County’s western communities for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Nurse beaten by patient sues Palms West, citing security failures
Reporting by Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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