According to this article, a woman in Charleston, West Virginia has filed suit against Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation Center in Dunbar, West Virginia. Tammy Rae Combs filed the suit alleging the nursing home was negligent and that as a result her father, Ray Combs, suffered from pneumonia, dehydration, pressure sores, multiple fractures, malnutrition, contractures and loss of weight.
Tammy Rae Combs, said “doctors were shocked at her father’s condition when the nursing home staff sent him to Charleston Area Medical Center.” The hospital later amputated both of her father’s legs, but could not save him.
Sunbridge’s parent company, Sun Healthcare Group of New Mexico, has been named in the suit as well as the administrator at that time, Tammy Jo Painter. Sun Healthcare Group of New Mexico owns 104 nursing facilities and operates an additional 37 facilities.
The defendants assured Mr. Combs’ family they would provide him with appropriate and adequate care while he resided at Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation Center, but due to budgetary restrictions on staff and supplies, the family feels that this was a misrepresentation. Sun Healthcare Group filed for bankruptcy in 1999.
The case will be tried on Kanawha Circuit Court.