Scott Schara, best known as “Grace’s Dad,” lost his daughter in 2021 in a Covid hospital in Wisconsin and accuses the facility and certain healthcare workers of ending her life. He now works to help others avoid his fate, and to that end, filed a groundbreaking lawsuit in April that seeks justice for Grace and anyone adversely affected by the healthcare system.
Ascension Health issued its response on May 15, denying responsibility in the case. Schara’s spokesman, Andrew Lohse of Overton & Associates, calls it a “startling” case of “blame the victim,” summarizing the response in four bullet points:
- Ascension suggests that Grace Schara may have been responsible for her own death
- Ascension insinuates that Scott Schara, her father and the case’s plaintiff, may have been responsible for her death
- Ascension claims that “nurses and hospitals have no duty to obtain a patient’s medical informed consent under Wisconsin law”
- Ascension claims that “it does not provide health care services; it does not employ health care providers nor did it employ anyone who rendered care to Grace Schara at any time material”
Lohse points out that Ascension has come under intense scrutiny of late, harshly criticized in a letter directed to its CEO from Wisconsin Democrat U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. She said the conglomerate – which is tax-exempt and therefore bound to operate in public interest – operates “like a private equity fund.” She accused it of “squeezing staff, closing facilities, and extracting cash from its member hospitals for dubious ‘management fees’” to “advance its investment activities and provide compensation to its executives.”
Baldwin is not alone in bringing these accusations. Last year The New York Times published an exposé about Ascension Health: “How a Sprawling Hospital Chain Ignited Its Own Staffing Crisis.” Lohse says that report is one of many that “paints a troubling picture of a ‘Catholic’ hospital system run like a Wall Street firm – with self-enriching executives as the only winners, even as patients and victims like Grace Schara continue to suffer.
Significantly, Ascension has not countersued on grounds of “libel, slander or defamation against Scott Schara” despite his public campaign to air Grace’s story. See GraceSchara.com and OurAmazingGrace.net.
Schara met with The New American to give insights about Ascension Health’s response to his lawsuit.
Helpful links:
“Breaking the Oath” documentary https://www.america1stproductions.com/breakingtheoath
