Mary, 77, suffered from an end-stage renal disease and required a wheelchair due to left-sided weakness that resulted from a stroke. Mary lived at a nursing home facility, Beachwood Pointe Care Center, with her husband who also used a wheelchair.
When the nursing home’s staff chose not to bring Mary to the facility’s dining room, her husband threw a belt over his shoulder and “towed” Mary — in her wheelchair — to the eating area. As the couple rounded a corner, Mary’s wheelchair caught on a doorframe, which caused her to fall to the floor. Mary suffered a broken leg in the fall, but it went undiagnosed for two days until the nursing home’s staff at her dialysis center noticed the injury and sent her to the hospital.
After Mary returned to the nursing home, she developed multiple bed sores. This included two Stage IV sores on her buttocks, which became infected and led to sepsis from which she later died.
Mary was survived by her husband and five daughters.
Mary’s family filed a lawsuit against the nursing home claiming its staff chose not to properly assist Mary as required in her nursing home care plan and allowed her to be towed unsafely by her husband’s motorized wheelchair.
Mary’s family also claimed that the nursing home failed to timely diagnose her broken leg and prevent her bed sores, which ultimately caused her sepsis and death.
After a jury trial, the jury entered its verdict in the amount of $1 million, which included $560,000 in punitive damages.
The attorneys representing Mary’s family in this wrongful death case and nursing home abuse and negligence case were Blake A. Dickson and Daniel I. Inscore.
Lang v. Beachwood Pointe Care Center, No. 803569 (Ohio Ct. Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Nov. 4, 2015).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling nursing home abuse cases, nursing home negligence cases, medical negligence cases and nursing negligence cases for individuals and families who have been injured or killed by the negligence of a medical provider for more than 40 years, in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas including, Oak Lawn, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Harvey, Midlothian, Palos Hills, Geneva, Highland Park, Morton Grove, Palatine, Round Lake Beach, St. Charles, Western Springs, Deerfield, Cicero, Palos Heights, South Barrington and Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Related blog posts:
Nursing Home Sued by Resident for Improper Administration of Medications
Nursing Home Resident Death Allowed to Proceed in State Court and Did Not Violate Arbitration Act
Nursing Home Lawsuit Resulting in a Resident’s Death for Delayed Transfer to Hospital