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Medford woman sues nursing home over father's death A Medford woman has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home where her father died after being given morphine. Alecia Avery Juber, 53, is suing the Sheridan Care Center, the center's administrator and owner Linda Hill Johnston, nurse Michael J. Coons, Legacy Visiting Nurse Association Inc. and several unnamed nurses and nurse assistants, the News-Register reported Thursday. Juber's father, John Avery, died at the center in January 1998. "This is about holding people accountable," Juber said of the suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages. "This was never about money. It's about why my father was put to sleep without his permission." Juber's complaints about Avery's death led to a state investigation that uncovered three other deaths. In each case, Coons gave the patient morphine. State investigators determined that the center failed to provide basic care for the center's residents. The report also concluded the patients died after receiving excessive doses of morphine. In the suit, Juber alleges the care center not only employed Coons when it should have know he was unqualified, but also failed to properly supervise him. The state fined the center $6,000, and the Yamhill County District Attorney and state Attorney General's offices subsequently launched a criminal investigation. Coons has claimed that he was only following instructions and did nothing wrong. Nursing home officials maintain that the four patients did not die of morphine overdoses. A separate investigation resulted last month in the federal government threatening to pull Medicare funding from Legacy Visiting Nurse Association Hospice -- which was helping care for Avery before his death. The federal investigation concluded the hospice was endangering patients. Legacy said the policies that caused the problems have been changed and the hospice program is awaiting a follow-up investigation to confirm it meets federal standards. Juber said she decided to file the suit because she is unsatisfied with the way the case is being handled by prosecutors in Yamhill County. "I'm interested in justice," she said, adding that her suit is not meant to challenge Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. "If you want to die because you're in pain with cancer, you have the right in this state to ask to be put to sleep. But nobody asked my father if he wanted that." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA