Although we’d like to think that our loved ones are safe in nursing homes, the fact of the matter is that this isn’t always the case. It’s when we hear cases of serious injuries or, in the worst of cases, someone dies, that we realize that negligence such as this will continue to happen if the guilty parties are not held responsible for their actions.
This appears to be the sentiments of one family in Texas who is suing a nursing home for failing to adequately treat a urinary tract infection that eventually led to their loved-one’s death.
According to the complaint, the elderly patient developed the infection on December 27, 2010. Left untreated, the infection spread to her bloodstream causing serious complications. She was transported to a local hospital on January 2, 2011 for treatment, unfortunately passing away three days later from a blood borne infection.
The surviving family members feel that if it wasn’t for the nursing home’s negligence, their loved one would not have died at that time. On December 21, 2012, they filed a wrongful death lawsuit holding the home responsible for failing to provide adequate care to the patient on multiple occasions and failing to document her condition without alteration of the facts.
The lawsuit is seeking compensation in the form of wrongful death and survival damages, mental anguish, emotional pain and suffering, as well as payment for medical, funeral and burial expenses.
A jury trial has been requested although it appears that no court date has been set at this time.
Source: The Southeast Texas Record, “Mount Pleasant nursing home faces wrongful death lawsuit,” Michelle Keahey, Dec. 27, 2012
