DAMAGE SUIT FILED AGAINST ROANE PHYSICIAN OVER TONGUE-BITING INCIDENT - Grantsville Woman Sentenced In Meth Case

(08/30/2014)
A Roane County physician and Roane General Hospital are being sued by the daughter of an elderly man who died about two months after a doctor allegedly inserted his tongue in the man's mouth, after which the man bit it off.

John Wesley Shafer, 78, was a patient in Roane General when the incident happened.

Yyonne Wright, administratix of the man's estate, brought the suit through her attorney Kenneth Hicks of Huntington.

The suit claims Shafer developed severe anxiety, emotional distress, depression and mental anguished following the incident, prior to his death on October 26, 2012.

Dr. Kenneth Seen faced criminal charges related to the matter and was found guilty of battery, placed on probation and his medical license suspended.

The case has been assigned to Judge Thomas Evans III.

In Roane County court, Tiffany R. Davis, 25, of Grantsville, was placed on three years probation after she pled guilty to conspiring with three others for operating a meth lab.

Joshua Wayne Boswell, 23, of Spencer, had his probation revoked and was ordered to be placed on home confinement for the remainder of his sentence.

Boswell was one of two individuals arrested for a breaking and entering at Steele Hollow.