Nursing Home Negligence, Wrongful Death
Our deceased client lived in a nursing home facility for four years. She was non-communicative and had Alzheimer’s disease. During the last 15 months at the home, she sustained three major injuries, including a broken pelvis, which required surgery.
The time and cause of the woman’s broken pelvis were unknown and not discovered until after she had been hospitalized for four days. Therefore, the defense counsel argued that the pelvis must have been broken either while she was being transported by ambulance or during her stay at the hospital.
We took testimony from two of the patient’s treating physicians, who testified that she did not fall in the hospital and that her pelvis fracture appeared to date from the time when she was still in the nursing home.
In addition to suffering a pelvis injury at the home, our client also sustained a subdural hematoma when she fell forward onto her head from a wheelchair, which required hospitalization.
Her last and most significant injury was a broken femur, which occurred when a nursing assistant—in violation of the resident’s care plan—lifted our client from the wheelchair by himself to put her into bed. Our client twisted and broke her femur, which required immediate surgery. She died six days later. Our client was survived by her 90-year-old husband.
The defendants denied liability. The trial lasted two weeks and ended in a jury verdict. Prior to trial, the highest settlement offer had been $50,000. The jury verdict was $300,000, which was fully collectible.