What we know about intended lawsuit over Johnson’s death

— The family of former Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson intends to sue Baylor Scott & White Health over alleged negligent care at the hospital system’s rehabilitation center that the family says led to her death.

Johnson, a trailblazing North Texas Democrat who served 15 terms in Congress, died on Dec. 31. She was 89.

Here’s what we know so far about her care in the months leading to her death and the lawsuit her family plans to file.

Johnson underwent back surgery in September, according to a news release from the family’s lawyer, Les Weisbrod. Kirk Johnson, Eddie Bernice Johnson’s son, visited his mother on Sept. 21 at the Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation in Old East Dallas where he found her “lying in her own feces and urine.”

Kirk Johnson could not find any nurses and went to the administrator’s first-floor office seeking help. CEO David Smith followed Kirk Johnson to his mother’s room, where staff were cleaning up the feces.

Johnson’s orthopedic surgeon documented the incident in Johnson’s medical records and wrote that, “Three days later she began having copious purulent drainage,” from an incision. Tests from Johnson’s wound found organisms related to feces, the release said.

Johnson underwent another surgery to repair the infected wound and was moved to a nursing facility in mid-October, then to her home in mid-December with hospice care.

Weisbrod sent a letter Thursday to Baylor Scott & White Health and the rehab center informing them of the allegations. It serves as a mandatory notice given before a formal lawsuit is filed.