$28.55 Million Jury Verdict Against National Nursing Home Chain for Neglect
Sep 28, 2017OUTCOME: $28,550,000 jury verdict, including $25,000,000 in punitive damages
Cecil Gary was 61 and completely dependent on his nursing home. A major stroke had left him paralyzed on one side, he had difficulty swallowing, and he had already lost a leg. He relied on staff for ev ... erything. After a Texas-based chain took over the Paducah facility, his care collapsed. He was left vomiting, in severe abdominal pain, for more than 24 hours while staff refused to send him to the hospital — trial testimony revealed an unwritten practice of keeping sick residents in their beds so the facility wouldn’t lose their Medicare and Medicaid payments. By the time he reached the ER he was in hypovolemic and cardiogenic shock with failing kidneys, so severely dehydrated that doctors gave him more than 28 liters of fluid over the following week. In a separate incident, an aide tried to move him alone and he fell from his bed, shattering his hip and femur. The facility told the state the neglect was unsubstantiated — while its own internal quality committee had already verified it. A McCracken County jury held the chain accountable: $2.5 million for pain and suffering, over $1 million for violations of Kentucky’s nursing home residents’ rights law, and $25 million in punitive damages.
