The class action lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, alleges Kettering Health was fully aware of potential dangers of a data breach, failed to take the appropriate steps to protect patients\u2019 data and did not comply with regulatory guidance and industry-standard cybersecurity practices.<\/p>\n
Now, hundreds of patients represented by the law firm Wright & Schulte LLC have filed individual personal injury claims against Kettering Health regarding the impact the cyberattack on their individual care. <\/p>\n
ExplorePREVIOUSLY: Class action lawsuit filed against Kettering Health amid cyberattack fallout<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re alleging is that after the ransomware attack, the system failure and shutdown disrupted the access to care, which resulted in appointments being canceled, diagnostic tests being delayed, treatment being disrupted, prescription-related care being interrupted, and ultimately that (this) delay caused real harm for individual people who couldn\u2019t afford to have lost that time,\u201d attorney Robert Gresham with Wright & Schulte said. <\/p>\n Unlike the class action lawsuit, these lawsuits are mass torts, which are individual claims allowing for individualized damages and the potential for differing settlements. In each case, the plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. <\/p>\n \u201cWith no adequate plan in place to deal with a foreseeable cyberattack, Kettering Health shut down its computer\/IT system and shut down much of its acute and primary care facilities, preventing patients from seeing and communicating with their health care providers, obtaining necessary care and treatment, and obtaining necessary prescription medications,\u201d a complaint filed by Wright & Schulte on behalf of Mishelle Holder of Dayton reads. <\/p>\n Holder\u2019s complaint is the main lawsuit from this series of mass torts from Wright & Schulte. <\/p>\n Holder\u2019s complaint stems from a surgery she had involving a blocked artery in her left leg and the subsequent pain she dealt with following the surgery, according to the lawsuit. Holder was unable to get a refill of her pain medication through Kettering Health due to the cyberattack. She also was not able to get pain medication through a Premier Health urgent care she went to when her regular doctor\u2019s office was unable to help Holder as Premier Health could not access Holder\u2019s medical records.<\/p>\n ExploreKettering Health sends out data breach notices to affected patients<\/a><\/p>\n Between the May 20 cyberattack and another surgery she had to address the pain on June 2, Holder \u201cwas in constant pain and she could only walk for five minutes at a time before she had to sit down due to the pain and discomfort,\u201d according to the court filing. <\/p>\n Other lawsuits allege the cyberattack delayed cancer screenings and other medical treatment, as well as prevented access to prescription medication. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have about a couple hundred (cases), which have already been filed. There\u2019s probably hundreds more that include the class action (lawsuit),\u201d Gresham said. <\/p>\n Kettering Health said it does not comment on pending litigation when asked about the lawsuits.<\/p>\n The May 20 cyberattack caused a systemwide technology outage at Kettering Health that lasted for more than two weeks, during which time patients were unable to access MyChart, phone lines and internet access were down, and employees made a swift return to paper charts. The hospital system briefly had to divert ambulances to other facilities at the start of the cyberattack and some treatments had to be rescheduled.<\/p>\n When the cyberattack happened<\/a>, sources told the Dayton Daily News that hackers appeared to be threatening to destroy data and publicly publish sensitive data on the \u201cdark web\u201d if hospital officials didn\u2019t reach out and negotiate within 72 hours. The dark web is typically described as a hidden part of the internet that is not indexed by regular search engines and only accessible through special browsers.<\/p>\n Hospital administrators on May 23 confirmed they believed the cyberattack was a ransomware attack. At that time, they said they did not have any direct contact with the perpetrator and did not pay any ransom.<\/p>\n A ransomware group called Interlock later claimed <\/a>it stole 941 gigabytes of data \u2014 including more than 730,000 files \u2014 from Kettering Health after recently taking credit for the May 20 cyberattack against the hospital organization, according to cybersecurity experts.<\/p>\n