Wrongful Death in Nursing Home from Infection and Severe Weight Loss

Nursing Home Negligence, Wrongful Death

When our client was admitted to the nursing home facility, she weighed 160 pounds. At the time of her discharge, she weighed less than 90 pounds and suffered from multiple infected pressure sores. Our client subsequently died from sepsis and gangrene of the left foot.

We alleged numerous violations of the standard of care required of a nursing home, including failure to:

• perform adequate dietary consultations,
• accurately document the percentages of meals eaten so that adequate dietary interventions could be analyzed and implemented,
• timely assess and treat depression,
• timely and properly notify the physician and dietitian of significant weight loss,
• and properly involve the resident’s family in the care planning process and the management of the resident’s nutrition and development for the prevention of pressure ulcers.

The defendants’ lawyers contended that our client suffered from a failure to thrive, and her weight loss and other injuries were unavoidable. They also alleged that our client had suffered from multiple strokes over the course of her stay at the nursing home.

In addition, the defense relied heavily on numerous entries in the medical records that supported their theory of her failure to thrive, their awareness of the pressure ulcers and weight loss, and their opinions that the weight loss and pressure ulcers were the “expected outcome” of the failure to thrive condition.

Experts involved in this case included geriatricians, an emergency room physician, an internist, nurses, and registered dietitians.

Resolution of the case through either settlement or jury verdict was more complicated than usual because the nursing home had a “wasting liability insurance policy”—meaning that every dollar spent for defense fees or costs were deducted from policy limits, with the result that each activity done resulted in reduced coverage available to our client.

In the lawsuit, we also included for “piercing the corporate veil” against the insectionidual owner, who was from out of state and owned numerous nursing homes across the country. Significant discovery was conducted on this claim, including having the court compel production of tax returns of the five corporations that owned, managed, or controlled the realty, building, and management company of the facility.

In the end, we were able to reach the $1 million settlement. The final settlement for our client was fully collectible.