Jury Faults Nursing Home in Neglect Case
A local nursing home must pay up for a patient who died after suffering a huge bedsore that ate through her skin to the bone.
A jury on Monday ruled against Rosewood Care Center and awarded $51,000 to the family of Catherine Taylor in connection with her death in 2004. Rosewood Care Center must also cover the attorney fees incurred by Taylor’s children over the course of the 5-year-old lawsuit.
“We feel vindicated that we proved that they did something wrong,” said Frank Cservenyak, one of the attorneys representing Taylor’s daughter, Mary Pat Barney, who was acting as the administrator of her mother’s estate.
Bedsores and neglect
Taylor, who was 88 when she died in December 2004, was a resident of Rosewood in July and August 2004, On Aug. 19, 2004, Taylor, a former teacher, was taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center and six days later “underwent a procedure to remove bedsores and treat bone infections brought on by her confinement to her bed and her exposure to urine and other bodily fluids during (her) care,” according to the complaint against Rosewood.
“She had a hole in her backside the size of my fist,” said Scott Pyles, the other attorney representing Taylor’s estate.
And Pyles said the bedsore was the fault of the nursing home staff.
“Rosewood screwed up on 8/18 (2004),” he said. “Everybody who testified in this case has told you about it, and it caused Catherine Taylor’s death.”
Dennis McCubbin, one of the attorneys representing Rosewood, pointed out that Taylor had bedsores on other parts of her body, proving that she did not suffer them as a result of neglect.
“If she wasn’t being turned, how did that happen?” McCubbin asked the jury in his closing argument.
“Something happened to her body that night,” McCubbin said. “I don’t know what it was. I don’t think the doctors know what it was.”
Nursing home negligence cases are real. Often those most in need are those who are the most abused and ignored. We have handled elder abuse or negligence cases. If you or a loved one have been seriously injured or if the death of loved one has occurred because of a care giver’s negligence, call attorney Robert B. Kornfeld now for a free consultation.
Mr. Kornfeld, of Kornfeld, Trudell, Bowen and Lingenbrink LLC, P.S., is a personal injury attorney who helps families just like yours who have suffered the loss of a loved one or who have had a family member unfortunately experience poor elder care. At times, patients at rest homes, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, care giving facilities, and the like do not receive the care to which they were entitled. Accidents and incidences of neglect do occur. For example, patients are sometimes not assisted in ambulating to and from the bed to the bathroom, and may slip and fall breaking a hip or suffering other serious injuries.
Other times we have seen neglect where incontinent patients are not cared for in a timely or routine manner and are forced to live in subhuman conditions. We have all seen patients develop severe bedsores and other complications of neglect, all because of the care facilities failure to follow-up and attend to even routine care of a patient.
Nursing home and elder care abuse cases are real and Mr. Kornfeld can help you, your family or a loved one try to obtain the legal assistance they need. Mr. Kornfeld offers a free consultation at a time and place convenient to you, either over the telephone or at your home, the hospital or one of our convenient meeting locations.
For a free consultation call 1 (800) 282-4878, or please e-mail Mr. Kornfeld rob@kornfeldlaw.com for an evaluation of your situation. For more information click on www.kornfeldlaw.com
