Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

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Sophia Alcon, 77, was admitted to Life Care Center of Pueblo, a skilled nursing facility. During the 7 months that she remained there, she suffered various injuries and illnesses, including urinary tract infections, bed sores, dehydration, malnutrition, pain, renal failure and aspiration pneumonia. She was brought to a nearby hospital where a staff medical provider noticed that her vagina was packed with dried feces. She died as a result of her medical conditions and is survived by her 10 adult children.

One of her sons, on her behalf and for the family, sued the nursing home and its corporate affiliates maintaining that they were responsible for her death. In the complaint it was alleged that the nursing home was negligent, was responsible for her wrongful death and was guilty of numerous consumer protection violations. Among other things, the Alcon family alleged that the defendants chose not to properly assess Sophia’s medical needs, formulate an appropriate care plan, provide adequate staffing and properly trained personnel at this skilled nursing facility.

The jury’s verdict of $5.56 million, included $5 million in punitive damages, which are designed to punish the defendants for the abusive treatment to Sophia Alcon.

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Ms. Doe, 82, lived at an assisted living facility. While she was there she fell, suffering a neck fracture and a myocardial infarction. In other words, not only did she sustain a fractured neck but she had a heart attack as well. Ms. Doe died two hours later. She was survived by her four adult children.

The lawsuit that was filed against the assisted living facility by the family alleged that the owner and operator of the facility chose not to implement fall precautions and properly monitor Ms. Doe or transfer her to a skilled nursing facility in light of her condition. Ms. Doe had dementia and a history of previous falls.

The defendant assisted living facility operator maintained that Ms. Doe’s cardiac event, her heart attack, was unrelated to her fall. When admitting a new resident, nursing homes and assisted living facilities go through a checklist of fall protection issues. Fall prevention in nursing home and assisted living facilities is a major focus for quality improvement in patient safety. The best way to prevent falls is to complete a thorough fall risk assessment on the first day of admission at any nursing home or assisted living facility. Significantly, these fall protection plans must be implemented to reduce the number of falls or the risks of future falls. Despite the best efforts of assisted living facilities and nursing homes, the elderly or infirm are susceptible to falls, which cause serious injuries.

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Samuel Dale Graham was driving his SUV; his wife, Sharla Kay, and their two children were passengers. Another motorist, Alisa Prueitt, drove off the road, over-corrected and struck the Graham SUV, which rolled over.

Samuel, 37 at the time, suffered fatal blunt-force trauma injuries and died at the scene. At the time of his death, he was working full time for a hospital and part time for a private healthcare company.

Sharla Kay was 33 at the time and suffered spinal fractures at C-1, C-6 and T-3 as well as facial cuts. She missed several months of work and continues to suffer pain and limited range of motion in her neck and back. Her medical bills totaled $11,700.

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A Kentucky Appellate Court has held that an admission agreement’s arbitration clause signed by the resident’s son at the time of her nursing home admission did not apply to the son’s subsequent wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home and its operators.

John Cox III signed an agreement to admit his mother Elizabeth Cox to the Kindred Nursing Centers. The agreement included a clause, as do many nursing home agreements, authorizing arbitration of claims against the nursing homes. After Elizabeth died, her son brought a lawsuit against the nursing home and its operators claiming wrongful death and other claims of nursing home abuse and resulting damages.

The nursing home and its operators moved to compel arbitration. The trial judge granted the motion as to all claims except the plaintiff’s wrongful death action.

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A Pennsylvania Superior court held that a trial judge did not violate the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) by refusing to split up a plaintiff’s wrongful death and survival claims arising out of the death of a nursing home resident. Margaret Tuomi was a resident at Kenric Manor, an assisted living facility. She developed contractures, pressure sores, a urinary tract infection, pneumonia, infection from a skin break and other medical issues. She was treated at a hospital. After she was transferred to Extendicare Health Facilities nursing home, she developed additional health problems from which she later died.

Tuomi’s husband and the administrator of her estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of her beneficiaries and a survival action against Extendicare and Kendric Manor. Extendicare moved the trial court to compel arbitration under an arbitration agreement signed by Tuomi’s husband when she was admitted to Extendicare.

The trial judge held that Tuomi’s wrongful death beneficiaries, who were non-signatories to the arbitration agreement, could not be compelled to arbitrate. The trial judge also held that under Pennsylvania’s procedural law, the case brought as a wrongful death claim and survival action could be consolidated and in fact were required to be consolidated and remained together in court.

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Marjorie Stearns, 89, suffered from dementia. She lived full time in a nursing home. The nursing home records showed that Marjorie had fallen at the nursing home. The nursing home initiated safety measures to protect against any future falls.

This Illinois Appellate case analyzed the legal concept of duty. It described two types of duties: one being the ordinary duty that all persons owe each other to guard against reasonably probable and foreseeable injuries that may arise as a consequence of an act and the second being an affirmative duty to act that arises as a result of a special relationship between one party and another.

In this case, the issue of duty was critical in that it had to be determined whether the ambulance service that was transporting the resident back from her dialysis treatment to the nursing home when she suffered a head injury had a duty to protect her.

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Frank Hegyi, 91, was a hospice care resident with dementia at the defendant Fair Oaks Health Care Center in Crystal Lake, Ill. On June 10, 2008, he was sitting in his wheelchair in the facility’s dining room when he stood up and fell, fracturing his right femoral neck. He was hospitalized and died of unrelated causes on June 23, 2008.

His family sued the nursing home for negligence in violation of the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, maintaining that the nursing home chose not place a “lap buddy” on his wheelchair. Damages were sought for pain and suffering.

The defendant nursing home argued that Hegyi was supervised appropriately and he was in the main dining room of the nursing home where he could be viewed frequently by the staff. The nursing home also argued that the use of lap buddy – essentially a cushion going across the wheelchair – was not required and its use had been decreased pursuant to restraint reduction requirements because state and federal law prohibit the nursing home from using restraints that could not be removed by the nursing home resident.

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Rosemary Jackson was a resident of the defendant’s Nature Health Trail Center in Mount Vernon, Ill., where she was rehabilitating after a colonoscopy at a different facility. She was 85 years old when she returned to Nature Trail following that colonoscopy. Over the next four days she was lethargic and showed signs of changes in her mental status.

Her daughter asked the nursing home staff to call the attending physician, but no call was made. On May 17, 2010, Jackson’s daughter telephoned the attending physician herself and told the doctor of her concerns about her mother’s condition. The doctor ordered an evaluation at the hospital.

An ambulance was called, but Jackson refused to go to the hospital. The daughter maintained that the nursing staff talked her out of going to the hospital.

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Salvador Palmieri was 86 when he underwent heart surgery and then experienced complications, which necessitated prolonged hospitalization in his hospital bed. A week after surgery, a nurse noticed new bedsores on his buttocks.

The hospital’s wound care nurse recommended cleaning and dressing the wound. However, a few months later, while Palmieri was still hospitalized, he became septic.

Palmieri was transferred to another hospital where he was diagnosed as having Stage IV sacral pressure sore, sepsis and other sores on his extremities. In spite of the medical treatment given, Palmieri died of sepsis, respiratory and kidney failure. He was survived by his wife and two adult sons.

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M.A. was 76 years old when he was first admitted to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation after knee surgery. M.A. underwent physical therapy and began to recover.

He later developed shortness of breath and was administered oxygen and other therapy.

Over the next several days, M.A. experienced shortness of breath, which continued, sweating and a gray skin tone.

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