This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

METAIRIE, La (WGNO) Robert Stanton’s father was admitted to a New Orleans area hospital early in the pandemic for treatment and died. But Stanton says his father didn’t die from the virus.

“Just because he had COVID while he was in the hospital, it’s my opinion that he didn’t die of COVID. He died of dehydration,” Stanton told WGNO News.

Stanton wants to sue the hospital. But even his own attorney says his case is a long shot.

“There is absolutely no culpability as the law stands right now. The health care provider is immune,” attorney Mary Grace Knapp said.

Knapp says the issue revolves around an emergency plan that Louisiana lawmakers passed in 2003. It’s a road map of sorts to help the state deal with a variety of crisis, and it includes medical provisions.

Knapp says that because the law was written to be applied to multiple situations, it also contains vague language. She says that it indemnifies medical facilities and workers from most malpractice claims, even those that have nothing to do with the pandemic.

Knapp is working with another lawyer, Tony Le Mon, who says that his client was involuntarily institutionalized at a mental health facility and was sexually assaulted by another patient. Le Mon says his client probably doesn’t have a case because the state’s COVID plan will protect the facility.

“The statute is so broadly written that I have to explain to my client you have no remedy against the hospital that let this happen to you,” Le Mon said.

This report is not examining the merits of either case. It is focusing on the affect that the state’s COVID plan could have on the medical malpractice lawsuit process.

The lawyers want a judge to rule that the COVID plan is unconstitutional. The state and Governor John Bel Edwards are both named in their lawsuit. In their response, they say that the lawyers’ claims are speculative, hypothetical and are based on events that haven’t happened yet.

So far, the COVID plan hasn’t prevented either lawyers’ lawsuit from proceeding. They currently have a hearing scheduled for February 22 before a judge in Baton Rouge.