South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

The Virginia Supreme Court recently affirmed an $850,000 verdict obtained by Jeff Downey in a nursing home case in Danville, Virginia. The case, Musgrove v. Medical Facilities of America Inc., involved pressures sores, an amputation, and death by dehydration, malnutrition and wound complications.

The Defendant asserted numerous assignments of error, many dealing with pertinent nursing home and/or malpractice issues. The Court denied the writ finding no reversible error in the judgment. Some of the issues included:

· Allowing recovery of both survivorship and wrongful death damages in the same cause of action;

· Allowing a medical expert to testify regarding nursing standards of care;

Allowing a nurse expert to testify regarding causation on pressure ulcers and other adverse outcomes;

Allowing a nurse who works part time clinically, and spends a majority of her time as a testifying expert to qualify under Virginia’s clinical practice requirement;

Allowing expert administrative testimony regarding nursing home staffing inadequacies; and

Allowng expert testimony regarding the significance of gaps in the chart.

Defendant filed some 25 motions in limine along with motions to limit expert testimony (on medical cause of death) and summary judgment on punitive damages.

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Knoxville News had an article about a nursing home resident who lost a leg due to the nursing home's neglect.    Neglect of a resident at Hillcrest-West nursing home led to the amputation of her leg last month, according to state reports quoting a doctor who consulted on the case.

The state has censured Hillcrest nursing homes for providing substandard care three times in the past two years.   Obviously the corporate managers ignored the problems and did nothing to correct them.

Now, as in the past, Hillcrest is in danger of losing federal funding if problems aren't corrected. Hillcrest-West has until May 25 to submit a detailed plan of correction, said Lee Millman, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.   During a survey conducted April 28 through May 2, the state found violations of "resident protection, administration, records and reporting, and nursing services standards."

Details in the recent state report on Hillcrest-West state that the amputee's pressure wound was at the most severe level when first noted by staff Feb. 7. The leg was amputated above the knee April 22. Doctors said the bone likely was infected and the wound was "exquisitely (intensely) painful" when manipulated.

A podiatrist said the pressure wound was the "result of neglect ... the worst wound I have seen in 12 years," and the surgeon who removed the leg concurred, the report states.   The same patient didn't get the amount of tube-fed nutrition and saline ordered by her doctor, with feedings skipped repeatedly, the report notes. Also, the family was not informed of the pressure wound and was shocked when they learned of the pending amputation, the state report said.

State inspections from 2006 and 2007 report Hillcrest-West patients found on the floor after apparently falling from beds or wheelchairs, failure to properly use restraints or alarms, patients who were unclean, and inadequate staffing.

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WBLT in Jackson, Ms. has an article about a resident who was so neglected in her diabetic monitoring that she will now lose her leg.  Below are excerpts from the article.

A nursing home's responsibility is to care for those in need.  On Friday, March 28, Willie Mae Coleman was admitted to University Medical Center in Jackson for gangrene. Her left leg will be amputated.   The family blames the Pine Crest Guest Home for neglecting to give her mother the care she needed.

"It could have been avoided if her leg had been properly elevated and proper procedure would have been done," she says. "It wouldn't have come to her having surgery."

"I think vascular disease is always preventative on several levels," said Coleman's doctor, Huey McDaniels.

Sandra says although her mother was admitted to UMC on Friday, nobody from the nursing home that brought her here notified them. In fact, her family didn't know she was there until Sunday. Sandra says her siblings went to visit Coleman at Pine Crest Guest Home on Sunday, but Coleman wasn't there. That's how they found out she was in the hospital. 

Sandra Coleman says there's no excuse for allowing her mother to get to a point where amputation is the only option.

"If it's happening to us, it could be happening to others there, too," said Sandra.

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