MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WPDE) — The impacts of the December 12 cyberattack on the Tidelands Health Hospital System are unclear, but what is clear is that patients feel they were victimized as a result of negligence.

A class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court this week holding the hospital system liable for the attack and the treatment of patients thereafter.

The lawsuit calls the attack an act of ransomware that disrupted the operations of Tidelands Health, blocking the systems and data and included the disclosure of "highly sensitive" patient medical records of thousands of patients.

Brandi Kersey is one of those patients and her name sits at the top of the lawsuit.

"It was a holy mess there," Kersey said. "Use this as a warning because you could be taking people's lives because you are not doing a backup."

Kersey said she was meant to visit Tidelands on December 18 for a nuclear stress test. She has suffered two strokes in the past year according to the lawsuit. However, when she was preparing to go in for the test, she said she was turned away.

"I was left in the dark until after they got it cleared up," said Kersey adding that she finally learned that the system's computers were back online from someone not with the hospital and later by her heart doctor.

The lawsuit claims the hospital system lost names, demographic information, date of birth, Social Security numbers and health insurance information among other information in the attack.

The attorneys claim since this breach, the hospital system has allowed that information to be at risk for fraud and identity theft. Friday night, Tidelands Health responded sharing with us this statement.

We cannot comment on pending litigation. As we've previously disclosed to patients and the public, on Dec. 12, the Tidelands Health computer network was impacted by a malware incident. Upon discovery of the incident, we immediately engaged external cybersecurity experts to help us secure our network, restore our systems and investigate the situation.

Our primary computer systems have been restored, and we have resumed normal operations. Our hospitals and outpatient locations continue to deliver safe, high-quality care to our patients and community.

To date, we have no evidence that patient medical information was exfiltrated during the Dec. 12 malware incident. However, the investigation is ongoing. We will continue to take appropriate steps to address the situation, collaborate with the appropriate authorities and notify any impacted individuals, if and when that is needed.

In the lawsuit, the second plaintiff, Starr Collister alleges that nurses repeatedly gave her food items that she could not eat as a result of the nurse's not being able to access Collister's medical records.

That's why Kersey shared this hypothetical situation with ABC 15's Andrew James in an exclusive interview. You see, Kersey is allergic to a litany of painkiller medications predominantly used in an emergency room.

"If I was there, and they had to give me something, and they can't pull up on the computer what I'm taking, they could have killed me," said Kersey. "That scares me. And that's just using me, how many other patients are in there, it's not right."

Collister called her three-visit stay at the hospital during the malware attack a "nightmare".

The lawsuit goes on to challenge the hospital's actions now in the aftermath. It claims the hospital has violated state data breach and HIPAA because a data breach has not been reported to the Department of Health and Human Services according to its online list.

The ordeal has been a learning lesson for Kersey. She said she plans to expand to other medical service providers in the area, but relies on Tidelands for some treatment.

"Why couldn't they have done something, why didn't they have something in backup," said Kersey.

The lawsuit lists more than a dozen ways patients believe the hospital failed to protect their information and the aftermath of the cyberattack. Patients are asking for monetary damages in a variety of forms as well as free credit monitoring for three years.