The plaintiff, Genevieve Lizotte, developed serious complications after undergoing surgery. She called the “community adviser” at her off-campus student apartment for help, but instead nearly died after the adviser allegedly failed to investigate.
A University of Minnesota student has filed a lawsuit against the school, saying that administrators did nothing when she spent 16 hours battling an almost-fatal sepsis infection on the bathroom floor of an off-campus apartment.
According to FOX News, the complaint was filed on behalf of plaintiff Genevieve Lizotte. It names defendants including the University of Minnesota and HART Radius, the owner of the complex where Lizotte resided.
Both entities, Lizotte’s attorneys say, “were negligent and breached their contract with Plaintiff, allowing her infection to spread and leaving her near death.”
In her lawsuit, Lizotte notes that she had underwent “major knee surgery” in April 2023 before returning to her building.
“By April 23, Plaintiff became very ill with infection from her surgery. She called the [Community Adviser] on-duty at 2:30 am to report that she had had surgery, her knee was very red, she had fallen, could not get up, and that she needed water,” the complaint states. “‘Please help me,’ Plaintiff begged.”
Although Hart Radius is owned by a private Chicago-based company, it is designated as a University of Minnesota student apartment.
On its website and in its housing contracts, the University of Minnesota states that it provides staff and community-assistance services at complexes like Radius. The school’s community advisers, for instance, ae responsible for overseeing building operations and providing resident support.
However, Lizotte claims that her community adviser knocked on her door—only to promptly leave when Lizotte did not open it.
“The [Community Adviser] later claimed that she had knocked on Plaintiff’s door, received no response, and left,” the lawsuit alleges. “Plaintiff remained on the floor for another 16 hours, with an ever-elevating fever while the infection spread throughout her body.”
The next day, on April 24, Lizotte’s parents—worried about their daughter’s lack of communication—contacted Radius’s community adviser, who seems to have dismissed their concerns as trivial.
“Yeah, she called last night at 2:30am saying she had fallen and asking for water, but she didn’t answer her door, so I left,” the community adviser said. “We haven’t heard anything more.”
Still concerned, Lizotte’s parents called local law enforcement to perform a wellness check.
“When law enforcement entered Plaintiff’s apartment, they found her on the bathroom floor, unresponsive, having a seizure, barely alive, in a pool of blood, and with a fever of 106,” the lawsuit alleges.
Law enforcement then took Lizotte to a hospital, where she became comatose while being treated for sepsis. Her family was told that she “likely would not live,” as “the infection had impacted her heart, lungs and brain.”
Jarringly, even as Lizotte was still comatose, Hart Radius’s residence director contacted her parents to complain about the late-night phone call and inform them that Lizotte would be evicted if and when she recovered.
Upon being told of Lizotte condition, “[the] manager responded, ‘Well, when she wakes up, we need to go over the rules with Eve. She can’t just call [the Community Adviser] at 2:30am asking for water.”
The residence director also purportedly said that Lizotte would be asked to move out of the building, as she had not yet signed a new housing contract.
Sources
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University of Minnesota student claims she was left to die by community adviser: lawsuit
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