Here is an update on the story of a US Army nurse set on fire by a civilian co-worker at the hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Her supervisors ignored her pleas for months before the attack to do something about the guy.  Now she is launching a lawsuit against the Army:

Before and after photos of 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, who was set on fire by a civilian Army employee in 2016. (Facebook)

One year ago, an Army civilian who tossed a water bottle full of gasoline onto his supervisor and lit a match was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison for attempted murder.

For the nurse who survived the attack, the fight is not even close to over.

The Feres doctrine prevents service members and their families from suing the Defense Department in the event of injury or death, but for 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, that is beside the point. In September, she filed a personal injury claim against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she was working at Munson Army Health Center at the time of the September 2016 assault.

“Is it okay for us to have gross negligence and zero accountability in the military? Because if you look at my case, that’s what it is,” Blanchard told Army Times in a Wednesday phone interview. “Zero accountability for the way they treated me and the things that they missed that will forever affect my life.”

Blanchard, 28, is asking for just under $3.5 million to cover some of the costs of the permanent disabilities she faces, after more than 100 surgeries to date and an intense battle with post-traumatic stress.  [Army Times]

I recommend reading the whole thing at the link because she was obviously failed by her leadership at Ft. Leavenworth.  With that said the other failure I see in this case is the difficulty with trying to fire government civilian workers.  I wonder how much that played into the attitude her superiors had with dealing with her co-worker?

With that all said it is going to be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out because if the Army can be sued for negligence this will open a Pandora’s Box of lawsuits against the Army.