A 59-year-old woman underwent a total right hip replacement, and was admitted to a nursing home for rehabilitation. Orders and a plan for the care of her hip where the replacement had occurred accompanied the woman’s admission. The day after her admission, a CNA came into her room to weigh her, and when the CNA turned her legs toward the right side of her body, it caused the woman to feel a sudden sharp pain in her right hip. The CNA then proceeded to continue to move the plaintiff onto the weight machine.
The woman alleged that the nursing home staff was negligent in following her admission orders and care plan by negligently moving her to weigh her. This caused her to suffer a fracture to her femur near its joinder with her hip. The woman complained of immediate and severe pain, and was transferred from the nursing facility back to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a displaced fracture of the greater trochanter of the right femur, a bony protrusion at the top of the thigh, near the hip.
The nursing home denied the allegations and maintained that the woman had complained of hip pain from the time of her admission and it was not caused by the CNA’s actions.
The woman had to undergo several surgical procedures for this injury; and so, she sued the nursing home. Her suit alleged negligence on the part of the CNA, failure to follow her admission orders with regard to the care and treatment of her right hip and failure by the nursing home to properly train and supervise its staff. The nursing home denied the allegations and contended that the woman had been complaining of severe right hip pain from the time she was admitted the day before, and that her surgeon had noted a crack in the greater trochanter during the hip replacement surgery. The woman’s counsel countered that while there may have been a crack during the surgery, the CNA’s negligence caused it to become a displaced fracture.
The parties agreed to resolve the plaintiff’s claim for the sum of $ 700,000 in a confidential settlement between the parties following mediation.
