This case summary describes what can go wrong when no interpreter is provided to facilitate communication between hospital staff, the patient, and the patient’s family.

The plaintiff alleges that during the patient’s heart surgery and his subsequent stroke and  convalescence, the Hospital failed to provide a sign  language interpreter to him and his wife, who are both deaf, in violation of numerous federal, state, and local  regulations, so that their two minor children–-(of normal hearing)–were forced to interpret.

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