Elder Law

Nursing Home agrees to pay $19 Million in Damages for Patient Neglect

By Levin & Perconti

A Brooklyn nursing home will have to pay nearly $19 million in damages to the family of a 76-year-old patient neglected so badly that he left the home with more than 20 bedsores. The award was handed down by a jury and is the first in the state to include punitive damages. The men entered the nursing home weighing 237 pounds and left to go to the hospital weighing a mere 148 pounds. The man wrongfully died from an infection caused by the bedsores. The panel awarded $3.75 million for the victim?s pain and suffering and tacked on $15 million in punitive damages. This was based on the allegation that the nursing home had doctored records to try to cover up the nursing home neglect. It appears that the nursing home restrained the Alzheimer?s-stricken victim to keep him from wandering off. They then left him unattended for long periods. Medical standards require that bedridden or restrained patients be moved every two hours to prevent such bedsores, and that the home only moved her every four hours. To learn more about the pressure ulcers, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).