A paralyzed patient has stayed at Mission Hospital for nearly 4 years. He refuses to leave. The hospital is suing him and his family for trespassing. • Asheville Watchdog

A paralyzed patient has stayed at Mission Hospital for nearly 4 years. He refuses to leave. The hospital is suing him and his family for trespassing. • Asheville Watchdog

For nearly 18 years, Eric Penland Jr. has heard the monotonous sound of the ventilator that keeps him alive. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, its swoosh-swoosh is as regular as a metronome in the stillness of his semi-dark, seventh-floor room at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Small cardboard pendants with the number “30” hang at the end of gold and black ribbons in his 12-by-20-foot room. A deflated, bright yellow balloon printed…