Anderson Blount briefs: February 1

Anderson Blount briefs: February 1

February 1, 2005

Family sues OR hospital in patient's fatal fall off roof

CLINTON - The son and daughter of a man who fell to his death after wandering onto the roof of Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge have sued the hospital for $10 million.

Stephen V. McGrath, 64, had undergone back surgery Jan. 28, according to the Anderson County Circuit Court lawsuit.

The next day, he had become "disoriented or otherwise developed a mentally altered state," left his room clad only in boxer shorts and gained access to the hospital roof through one of five access doors, the suit continues.

The hospital was negligent because it didn't adequately monitor McGrath or quickly discover that he had left his room, according to the complaint.

Virginia McGrath Weaver of Memphis and Steve McGrath of Cordova, Tenn., filed the complaint Jan. 27.

Update offered on green power, wind turbines

OAK RIDGE - An update on TVA's Green Power Switch program and the new high-tech wind turbines producing electricity by spinning atop Buffalo Mountain will be given during a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3.

Gil Melear-Hough, a green power specialist with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, will be the speaker at the meeting in Oak Ridge Civic Center's Craft Room.

So-called green power is electricity and other energy produced by normally nonpolluting, renewable resources, Sandra Goss said.

Goss is executive director of Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, an Oak Ridge-based environmental advocacy group that is sponsoring Thursday's meeting. The public is invited.