PLEASE NOTE: EVERY CASE IS UNIQUE AND DEPENDS ON A VARIETY OF FACTORS, INCLUDING THE FACTS, PARTIES, ISSUES, ANDD JURISDICTION. ALTHOUGH FRITH & ELLERMAN LAW FIRM, P.C., WAS SUCCESSFUL IN THESE CASES, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE OR PREDICT A SIMILAR RESULT ON ANY FUTURE CASE UNDERTAKEN BY OUR FIRM.
Nursing Home Settles After Patient Falls While Left Alone In Shower
Female nursing home patient received care at a Virginia nursing facility for assistance with activities of daily living. Although she was could not walk and required a two person assist, plaintiff alleged she was left in the shower room one day and fell fracturing her ankle. The lawsuit alleged the facility failed to assess the resident and failed to take proper fall precautions.
The case settled prior to trial.
Nursing Home Settles After Resident Develops Severe Bed Sore
A 70-year-old female nursing home resident developed Stage IV pressure ulcer on her sacrum at the base of her back, became dehydrated, malnourished, and suffered from fecal impaction. Transferred to local Hospital for insertion of PEG II but died before procedure. Our investigation revealed incorrect documentation in Nursing Home Records, as well as facility’s failure to provide resident with food, water, turning, wound care required by standard of care. The lawsuit alleged the facility’s failure to monitor residents wounds, and provide proper nutrition, caused her death. The nursing home argued she had a terminal ulcer that could not be prevented.
A settlement was reached days before trial.
Nursing Home Settles After Resident Injured In Multiple Falls
An 81-year-old female resident of a nursing home was discharged from a local hospital where she underwent surgery to repair a fractured hip to a nursing facility for post-surgical rehabilitation. On the night of her admission, she fell from the bed and broke her other hip, making rehabilitation very difficult. The lawsuit alleged the facility failed to assess the resident upon admission, failed to monitor the resident, and failed to take proper fall precautions (such as mats, half-rails, lower bed, etc). The nursing home argued that there was no duty to fully assess the resident upon admission, and that under federal Medicare law, they have over twenty days to perform a thorough assessment.
The case reached a settlement at mediation.
Nursing Home Settles After Resident Wanders From Facility
A 90-year-old female resident of a nursing home was admitted with a diagnosis of dementia. She was assessed as a “risk for wandering.” Within months of admission, she wandered, unattended and alone, out of the building and into the parking lot. She sustained severe injuries upon falling in the parking lot, which caused her death days later.
Settlement was reached at mediation.
Doctor And Pharmacist Settles After Ignoring Resident RX Allergy
A 75-year-old woman went to her primary care physician for her standard annual physical. Lab work revealed she had a urinary tract infection, and so days after her appointment, her physician called in a prescription to the local pharmacy. Unfortunately, the medication prescribed was the generic form of a drug that our client suffered from a fatal allergy! Reviews of the records reflect our client had told her physician about the allergy on numerous occasions. Within days of taking the medication, our client suffered severe organ failure and a stroke.
The physician and pharmacist each participated in settlement of the claim.
Nursing Home Settles After Resident Dies From Medication Error
A 71-year-old woman was discharged from a local hospital(where she underwent total knee replacement surgery to a nursing facility for post-surgical rehabilitation. The law suit alleged that the nursing home staff, and attending physician, failed to give her post surgical blood-thinning medication. Not only had the medication been ordered by her surgeon, but the use of the medication is standard in elderly patients after lower extremity surgery. The resident’s family alleged that within two weeks of being admitted, the resident suffered a pulmonary embolism and died, as a result of not receiving necessary anti-coagulation medication.
Our client reached a settlement prior to trial.
Nursing Home Settles After Failing To Prevent Serious Infection
In the first three months of 2005, five residents of local assisted living facility in Roanoke, Virginia became sick and tested positive for Strep A streptococcus, a bacteria that can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, also known as the “flesh eating bacteria.” We represented three of these residents. Our investigation revealed facility failed to take proper, but simple, precautions to prevent the bacteria from spreading and did not warn residents, or their families, about the presence of infection. The defendant facility argued that, unlike a nursing home, it had no duty to provide reasonable health care to its residents.
As a result of extensive discovery and the involvement of experts from the assisted living industry, our firm was able to settle all three cases for our clients.
Nursing Home Settles Following Violent Assault
An 82-year-old female resident was taken to a Virginia assisted living facility to stay for a few weeks while her family was out of town. On September 17, 2005, another resident in the facility violently attacked the female resident, and she died a few days later from head injuries sustained during the attack. Our investigation revealed the female resident was the 11th or 12th resident or staff member who had been physically assaulted by the attacker. Despite his known violent manor and propensities, the facility neither removed him from the facility nor reported his actions to law enforcement. The attacker was charged with attempted murder for attacking the female resident but found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Settlement was reached after our investigation but prior to filing suit.
Manufacturer of Bed Rails Settles Following Fda Safety Alert
The decedent was admitted to a Virginia nursing home for total medical management and remained at that facility until her death the following month. The decedent, 97 years old, was discovered by the nursing staff during the morning shift change. The decedent had fallen out of her bed between two (split) side rails. Her neck was entrapped between the side rail and the bed mattress and her buttocks rested on the floor. Her death was caused by positional asphyxiation. A claim was filed against the nursing home and settled. A second suit was filed against the manufacturers of the nursing home bed and bed side rails. Decedent’s counsel discovered that the FDA had issued a safety alert for entrapment hazards for similar-type beds and side rails in 1995.
The manufacturers of the bed rails and mattress settled the decedent’s claim early in the litigation.