| |
Neglect in
Nursing Home Care
A Personal Injury
Case Study
This example of neglect in nursing home care illustrates some important
legal issues in these types of personal injury cases. We'll review the incident,
liability,
injuries, settlement
negotiations, and the final case resolution.
The Incident...
Mark and Monica interviewed several rest homes and settled on
Peaceful Acres for their 92 year old mother, Joyce. At first
they
visited her daily and observed the care she was receiving, however
after about 2 months their visits became less frequent as they began to
grow more comfortable with leaving her unattended.
Finally,
they decided to make a long over-due trip out of the country to visit
their sister for two weeks. During that time, Joyce’s
caregivers
fed her only twice a day instead of three times as scheduled and failed
to raise bed rails causing Joyce to fall from her bed and break her
hip. Once she broke her hip, she was not mobile, however they
failed to move Joyce causing her to get painful bed sores.
Liability...
In this situation, both Peaceful
Acres and their employees were liable for negligence and breach of
contract. Mark
and Monica hired them to provide certain services to their mother and
signed a contract requesting that those services be performed – namely,
three meals a day and use of bed rails due to previous falls.
When the facility and their employees failed to provide these services,
they breached their contract with Mark and Monica.
In
addition, they owed a duty to Joyce to both feed her and provide bed
rails. When they failed to do so, Joyce fell from her bed and
broke her hip. Breaking her hip caused her to be less mobile
and
required her to remain in bed for extended periods of time. When they
did not regularly mobilize her, she developed bed sores which were the
direct result of their neglect in nursing home
care.
The facility
is directly liable for negligence, but so are the
employees that they hired under the theory of negligent supervision, negligent
hiring and respondeat
superior which makes employers vicariously liable for the
torts of their employees.
Injuries...
Joyce was malnourished and broke her hip, a painful and
debilitating condition. She also had to endure painful bed
sores,
all of which were directly caused by the negligence of Peaceful Acres
and their employees.
Even though Joyce was perhaps too
old to endure such a surgery, she was left with few options and
underwent the procedure incurring $48,000 in medical
bills. The
bed sores eventually healed with appropriate treatment and antibiotics
to fight infection.
Negotiations...
Peaceful Acres was required to maintain a $2 million policy in
place for injuries that occurred on the premises. Joyce’s
family
hired a private investigator who discovered that Peaceful Acres had 15
complaints filed against it in one year alone.
Joyce’s family
submitted a claim for $250,000 for her pain and suffering, surgery
expenses and the care Joyce needed to rehabilitate once her surgery was
complete. The demand
also
took into account the quality of life Joyce experienced (since hip
surgery to a fragile and elderly women is so dangerous and due to the
fact that she would never completely heal).
Final
Settlement...
Joyce’s family settled with Peaceful Acres and it’s employees for the
sum of $210,000 and Joyce died 2 months later. The settlement
was made payable to Joyce’s estate and any distributions from there
were handled by her probate attorney since Joyce died without a will.
Important
Points...
- When your loved one is in a rest home, it is a
good idea to do random, unexpected drop-in visits.
- Do a license and complaint check on the
facility to determine whether it is safe and if it has a history of
neglect in nursing home care.
- Ask to see incident reports once you make a
decision on a particular facility.
-
If you know that you are not going to be available for an extended
period of time, find someone who can make periodic checks on your loved
one.
Return
from Neglect in Nursing Home Care to
Elderly Abuse
Return
from Neglect in Nursing Home Care to Personal
Injury Settlement Guide
The accuracy of information on this site is not guaranteed. Information on this site is strictly opinion and should not be considered formal legal advice. Under no circumstances should the information on this site be used to make decisions about the proper course of a legal matter. Click below to read our full User Agreement, Disclaimer and Copyright Information.
|
