Settlement in Medication Error Case
Auburnpub.com published the tragic story of Geraldine Burke who passed away in the Cayuga County nursing home in 2009 after being given the wrong medication for 18 days. The county will pay $88,000 to her estate. Burke passed away on April 11, 2009, and her son, Wayne Burke, filed the lawsuit against the county.
For more than two weeks before Burke’s death, three different nurses at the county nursing home gave her the wrong medication. In just 18 days, she lost eight pounds, developed an inflamed large intestine and became lethargic and dehydrated, according to a report by the state Department of Health.. The autopsy showed that the medication led directly to her death. The family was not informed of the mistake until after she passed away. Burke said that he is mostly upset by the attempt to hide the facts; he has yet to receive a copy of her autopsy and stated that, “I still don’t know anything to this day.”
The nursing home paid a $12,000 fine to the Department of Health. Wayne Burke will receive $88,334 from the county and $47,654 from HealthDirect, a subsidiary of Kinney Drugs. The county had sued Kinney Drugs, claiming it had breached an implied warranty by prescribing the wrong medication.
