Woman Suing Nursing Home

UPDATED: 2:20 p.m. EST December 27, 2002

AKRON, Ohio -- A judge rule that is was OK for a dying woman to smoke in her nursing home, according to NewsChannel5.

Virgie Meade, 57, sued the Kirtland Facility for what she calls her last right.

She was forced to smoke outside after a nursing home administrator enforced a no-smoking policy. She has emphysema and a pulmonary disorder and needs pure oxygen to breathe.

Meade said it's not healthy for her to go out in the cold to smoke cigarettes.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Eugene A. Lucci ruled that Meade's rights to smoke indoors were grandfathered when new management took over.

"Just because she's a smoker, doesn't mean she gets less rights for any other kind of disease," she said. "She's addicted to it ... you must attend to that addiction."

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2002