$11 Million Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Verdict for Patient’s Wrongful Death is the Largest Verdict Against an Assisted Living Facility
The widow of a TBI nursing home patient who died after swallowing numerous foreign objects, including closed catsup packets, plastic bags, paper towels, and candy wrappers, has been awarded $11 million for his wrongful death. This is the largest verdict that a jury has ever awarded to a plaintiff against a US assisted living facility.
Earl Scherrer was just 36 when he died in May 7, 2006. He sustained a serious traumatic brain injury during a car crash in 2006 and went into a coma. Although doctors did not expect him to recover, his wife Lydia insisted that he remain on life support.
16 months later, he began to come out of his coma and with her help slowly started to speak. Lydia spent hours helping her husband with his recovery and she also relied on US nursing homes to provide needed, full-time care. She visited him regularly for years.
On April 7, 2006, Lydia admitted Earl into Liberty Manor Residence. The long-term care facility claimed to provide 24-hour care. On May 7, the facility called her to tell her that her husband had been throwing up. She retrieved her husband from the home and gave him a bath. He started throwing up black matter and died.
According to autopsy results, Earl had ingested a number of items that had gotten lodged in his small intestines and stomach. The medical examiner found that these foreign objects contributed to her husband’s death, resulting in hypertensive heart disease. The verdict awards $5 million to Lydia, $2 million to the decedent, and $4 million for damages.
TBI Nursing Home Patients
Many TBI patients have to stay in US nursing homes because they require 24-hour, specialized care that cannot be provided by family members. These nursing home residents often require ongoing supervision and they may need helping eating, using the bathroom, getting changed, walking, or communicating. When failure to provide this care due to nursing home abuse or neglect leads to serious injuries or death, the US nursing home can be held liable for personal injury or wrongful death.
Arizona Jury Awards Landmark $11 Million Verdict in Assisted Living Case, Yahoo, March 20, 2009
Caregiving Solutions, AGIS
Related Web Resource:
What is Traumatic Brain Injury?, CDC
