MontVue Nursing Home has denied culpability in its legal response to a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit filed against it last month.
“Shenandoah resident Joyce Smith sued MontVue’s parent company Shenandoah Valley Care Inc. after her mother, Joyce Earline Bigelow, a former patient at MontVue, died of complications from a fall last October. The suit alleges that MontVue staff disregarded repeated instructions from Bigelow’s family and doctor by letting her attempt to use the restroom unassisted. This action, the lawsuit states, resulted in Bigelow’s fall and injuries that caused her death several weeks later. Smith’s lawsuit, filed by Luray attorney Jason Spitler, seeks $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages,” according to reporter Andrew Jenner of the Harrisonburg Daily News.
Although they will not get $10,000 according to VA State law – the lawsuit is making a statement. And that statement is clear – you don’t do what you know is right, and people get hurt, and families destroyed.