A Dothan state court jury awarded $4 million to the daughter of a man who died from a fall in a long-term care hospital. In August 2007, 77-year-old Thomas Doster was found on the floor of his room at Noland Hospital Dothan. A review of his medical records and a state investigation revealed that he was supposed to be in restraints at the time of the fall because he was such a high fall risk. The jury found that the hospital breached the standard of care by leaving the restraints off of Mr. Doster and that the breach caused Mr. Doster’s death less than 12 hours after his fall. Rip Andrews and Ben Ford tried the case for the plaintiff. They were assisted by local counsel Todd Derrick during the one-week trial.
The hospital defended the case by claiming that the records were wrong and that Mr. Doster never actually fell, or that fall has a separate definition in the medical context, and that his death was a coincidence in time.
