A 70-year-old woman, who had been a family physician, was disabled by injuries she received from an automobile accident in New York State; and allegedly, died as a result of a lack of monitoring at the nursing home where she was receiving care. The defendant nursing home disputed the negligence claims, but ultimately settled with the deceased woman’s estate for $270,000.
After the accident, the woman was hospitalized in New York for a period of time and then transferred to a facility in Salem, New Hampshire where she underwent one year of rehabilitation. She had made progress and was beginning to partially care for herself and communicate. Then, she was transferred to the defendant nursing home in October 1997. The woman still required ventilation, artificial feeding and was spastic, but her condition was stable until March 27, 1998, when the woman’s daughter was informed that the nursing staff caring for the woman had witnessed a seizure episode and the woman had a 102.5 degree temperature. During the seizure episode, the woman aspirated into her lungs. Records indicated that her vital signs were not checked for hours following the seizure episode. Four hours after the seizure, she was intubated and transferred to a hospital as an emergency patient suffering a cardiac arrest. Her condition declined and there were no more signs of improvement. The woman’s daughter claimed that the aspiration resulted in pneumonia and the woman went into a slow decline and died on January 27, 1999.
The nursing home contended that decedent was properly monitored and received proper care, but that decedent’s health was already severely compromised when she was admitted to the nursing home. They contend that the seizure incident was unfortunate, but nothing related to their staff’s care contributed to the seizure, the woman’s deteriorating health and death nine months later.
Reportedly, evidence was later found that state agencies had received complaints showing a pattern of deficient care regarding the defendant nursing home.
