A federal jury in North Carolina entered its verdict in favor of the families of three nursing home residents who died at Blue Ridge Health Care Center. The lawsuit filed for the wrongful deaths claimed these deaths were caused by the callous neglect of these and other nursing residents.

The jury awarded both compensatory and punitive damages in the case. The suit alleged that the nursing home’s medical staff chose not to properly monitor the patients, allowing them to remove their own breathing tubes without proper safeguards in place. The families alleged in these wrongful death lawsuits that the patients all required ventilator or tracheotomy tubes, which the residents were able to remove on their own. There was claimed to be little or no medical staff intervention to prevent residents from removing their ventilators or tracheotomy tubes.

The jury entered the verdict in favor of the families of the nursing residents — Baird, Jones and Kee — compensatory damages of $50,000, $300,000 and $300,000, respectively, and punitive damages to each family in the amount of about $1.5 million.

The attorneys representing the families of the deceased nursing home residents were Rachel A. Fuerst, Carmaletta L. Henson and Thomas W. Henson Jr.

VanDevender et al. v. Blue Ridge of Raleigh LLC et al., Case No. 5:14-cv-00150, In the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling nursing home abuse cases, nursing home negligence cases and wrongful death cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 40 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Merrionette Park, Blue Island, Calumet Park, Cicero, Joliet, Alsip, Aurora, Mount Prospect, Bolingbrook, Waukegan, Bedford Park, Chicago (Marquette Park, Beverly, Washington Heights, Lake Calumet, East Side, Grand Crossing, Woodlawn, Hyde Park, Bridgeport, Canaryville, Bronzeville, Chinatown, South Shore, Jackson Park), Maywood and Yorkfield, Ill.

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