ManorCare Nursing Home Dehydration Lawsuit Results in $91.5M Verdict

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A West Virginia jury has awarded $91.5 million to a man who alleged that his mother died as a result of nursing home neglect at a HCR ManorCare nursing home in Charleston. 

The nursing home wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Tom Douglas, whose mother, Dorothy Douglas, died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration at a ManorCare nursing home.

Tom Douglas placed his mother in Heartland of Charleston in September 2009, and in just a couple of weeks, she suffered kidney failure due to dehydration and malnutrition, which he claimed was caused by neglect and understaffing.

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Douglas only intended to put his mother in the home temporarily while waiting for a room to open up at a facility that specialized in taking care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. A day after he transferred her to the new facility she was hospitalized and died.

Following trial, the jury deliberated just two hours before finding the facility and its corporate owners guilty of negligence, and awarded Douglas $11.5 million in compensatory damages and $80 million in punitive damages.

ManorCare nursing home officials have said they intend to appeal the verdict and claim that the facility was properly staffed. There are more than 500 Manor Care nursing homes in 32 states throughout the country.

Nursing home dehydration and malnutrition can occur when facilities fail to provide sufficient food and fluid or monitor the intake of residents. Failure of staff to keep adequate records, assess a residents dietary needs or understand that nutritional needs of residents can lead to severe and life-threatening nursing home injuries.

Tags: Dehydration, Malnutrition, ManorCare, Nursing Home Neglect, West Virginia, Wrongful Death
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4 Comments

yvette
My mother was at manor care for rehab on her hand that was infiltrated by an I.v while in hospital. When she was admitted to facility 2/17/14, she had renal disease, diabetes, and a pleurx in her back. My mother was able to feed herself, talk on phone, and get to bathroom with assistance. After a week or two she couldn’t do any of those things and she grew weak. I found my mother lethargic when I visited her one day and nurse said she didn’t eat or drink for two days(she had food in her mouth) or take medication knowing she had renal failure. They admitted my mother to moore regional hospital, put on a ventilator and found out she caught c.diff (colon inf) and her kidneys were functioning at 15%.. She passed 3/15/14.
Tom Klammer
Some things don’t seem to change much. HCR ManorCare has quite the history of abuse, neglect, and short staffing. In 2003, I was aksed to testify before a hearing of the Subcommittee on Aging of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the US Senate. ManorCare featured quite prominently. Testimony can be found at http://ftp.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/108s/89354.txt Scroll down to STATEMENT OF TOM KLAMMER, REPRESENTATIVE OF WALTER LEONARD KLAMMER, ADVOCATE, KANSAS CITY, MO or do a text search for “ManorCare.”
Deb
CEOs of Sun Healthcare purchased 4 ocean front homes in Newport Beach, Calif in the past few years, after slumlording in their SunBridge Nursing home in 2003, causing 5 deaths I personally knew of, including my mother, Evelyn Calvert, Richard Laga, Betty Harness, Stella Carter and a man in Rm 2B in Oct 2003. All from lack of staffing and numerous pieces of broken equipment. We warned the CEO in May, 2003 yet by November these patients lost their lives. They make $2 M annual salary yet under staff nurses. Federal medicare is the bulk of their income, they shouldn’t be allowed to rip off the beneficiaries of medicare in this manner. They are greedy men causing manslaughter of the elderly for profit.
Deborah
Sun Healthcare Group Inc severely neglected my mother and caused her death, too. But the CEO cheated us out of wrongful death when he conspired with my former, late, corrupt attorney whom I sued for malpractice and won. That corrupt attorney passed on threats in mediation from the CEO that I wasn’t getting the keys to his Bentley and would be harmed if I pursued our case to a jury trial where we could easily prove that CEO’s willful misconduct. www.sunhealthcaregroupinc.blogspot.com Two CEOs have had the nerve to slumlord in the same city they reside in (Newport Beach, California) and evade proseuction for violating a Calif state injunction.

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