South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

On March 25, 2009, an Arizona jury carefully considered the evidence, and deliberated, before compensating Lydia Scherrer $11 million for the harms and losses she suffered for the wrongful death of her 36 year old husband, Earl Scherrer.

The United States has never seen a larger verdict for this type of case, and there is good reason that the jury reached the decision they did. In 1996 Mr. Scherrer was involved in an automobile collision that left him in a coma with critical brain damage that doctors diagnosed as irreversible. Against doctor’s advice, Mrs. Scherrer refused to remove her husband from life support. She wanted to do everything possible to save him, and diligently waited by his bedside for nearly a year and half - hoping and praying that he would come back to her.

Finally, Mr. Scherrer began to emerge from his coma. His wife encouraged and coaxed her husband every day to relearn simple first and second grade reading and math - trying desperately to keep his brain stimulated.

Eventually, the financial pressures became too crushing. Mrs. Scherrer had to return to work. She had to rely on assisted living facilities and group homes to take care of her husband while she worked to support his care.

On her days off of work, she would faithfully check him out of the facility and take him home and cared for him herself. In April of 2006, Mrs. Scherrer started using Liberty Manor Residency, an assisted living facility which touted that it provided 24 hour a day care.

Exactly one month later, Mrs. Scherrer received a phone call from the facility. Liberty Manor told her that her husband was sick and vomiting. Mrs. Scherrer promptly left work and checked him out. She took him home to care for him. She immediately ran a bath for him and was washing him up when he started vomiting a black substance.

Mr. Scherrer then died in her arms. An autopsy was performed and it was found that Mr. Scherrer died from hypertensive heart disease due to mechanical obstruction of the GI from foreign objects. Mr. Scherrer was found to have plastic bags, unopened ketchup packets, candy wrappers and paper towels in his stomach and small intestines which caused the hypertension.

At trial, it was proven that Liberty Manor falsified Mr. Scherrer’s records - by adding daily care notes to his records that included days that Mrs. Scherrer had checked him out to care for him on her own.

The courageous members of the jury did not take kindly to the outrageous neglect that caused Mr. Scherrer's death. Liberty Manor betrayed the trust that Mr. Scherrer's loving wife placed in them. For shame. For shame!

Continue reading " Historic Eleven Million Dollar Decision in Arizona Assisted Living Lawsuit " »

A jury awarded $7 million on April 17, 2009 to the family of a victim of nursing home abuse at the hands of Arkansas based nursing home, Sevier Healthcare, Inc.

Mr. John C. Minor was admitted to Sevier "Healthcare" in August of 2002. After suffering through two years of serious malnutrition, pneumonia, numerous urinary tract infections, dehydration to the point of kidney failure and 35 (!) bed sores, he died. Mr. Minor’s bed sores were so numerous and so infected - and of such an advanced nature - that his body could not even be embalmed for his funeral.

The jury found that the defendant nursing home had decided to inflate their profits by lowering their total staff - which resulted in inadequate care to Mr. Minor. To bring to light the severity of Mr. Minor’s case and other cases like his, Mr. Minor’s family decided to sue Sevier Nursing Home all the way through to a jury trial, knowing they would receive nothing even if a verdict was returned in their favor. Sevier Nursing Home and its Director had previously filed bankruptcy and there is no compensation at all to disburse to the family.

Each and every resident of a nursing home in the United States has certain rights guaranteed by the law - and every nursing home is required to make sure new residents receive a written form listing all of those rights. Again and again, I see cases where the rights of the elderly are simply ignored in the name of making a profit. Too many nursing home corporations decide to save hundreds of thousands - and even millions - of dollars by under-staffing their homes. When that happens, the care given to the residents declines sharply.

Here are just a few of the rights that every nursing home resident has under the law of this country and our state:

* Right Number 1: Treatment with dignity and respect at all times.

* Right Number 2: Notice in writing about services and fees before entering the facility.

* Right Number 3: The ability to manage the resident's own money or to choose someone else to do this.

* Right Number 4: Privacy, and to keep and use the resident's own personal belongings and property.

* Right Number 5: To be informed about the resident's medical condition, medications, and to see their own doctor.

* Right Number 6: To refuse medications and to refuse treatments.

* Right Number 7: To choose the resident's own bedtime, schedule, activities and other preferences.

* Right Number 8: An environment that is more like a real home - where the resident's comfort is maximized, and where the resident is given the help to be as independent as possible.