Nursing Home Fall Lawsuit After Bilateral Knee Fractures

Mitchell v. Kensington Nursing, LLC

This nursing home fall lawsuit was filed by a woman in Baltimore after she fell while being pushed down a wheelchair ramp. It was filed in Health Claims Arbitration on March 1, 2017, and is the 102^nd medical malpractice case filed in Maryland this year.

Summary of Plaintiff's Allegations

Plaintiff, a 77-year-old woman, is a long-term resident at defendant Kensington Healthcare Center. She has diabetes, heart disease, mental health disorders, and she is obese and immobile. These health conditions make her a high fall risk and she requires assistance transferring in and out of bed and going to the bathroom.

One day, staff at the facility helps her through the rear exit of the building so she can go to church. While pushing her wheelchair down the ramp, the staff member loses control of the wheelchair. The wheelchair tips over and the woman falls to the ground. She injures her face and knees.

Plaintiff is taken to Holy Cross Hospital and is found to have bilateral knee fractures. She has surgery to repair these, but she continues to have pain and a loss of function.

Additional Comments

• Assuming that the injuries correlate with the fall, this is a good case. Many nursing home fall cases involve allegations that the nursing home did not properly assess the risk of falls, implement appropriate protocols to prevent falls, or properly train the staff to recognize those residents at risk for falls and ensure that each resident receives adequate supervision, care and assistance to prevent falls. This case is easier for this plaintiff because the employee actually caused the fall directly.
• The usual defense to these fall cases in nursing homes is that 40 to 50% of all nursing home residents fall each year and many are just unavoidable. That defense will not carry the day in this case.
• Sometimes in these cases, the wheelchair is defectively maintained or improperly used. According to the CDC, approximately 27 percent of nursing home falls occur as the result of wet floors, poor lighting conditions, wet floors, incorrect bed height and improperly fitted or maintained wheelchairs.
• We do not know the type of knee fracture involved. Most likely, this was a patella fracture. Patella fractures usually heal in two or three months.

Jurisdiction

• Montgomery County

Defendants

• Kensington Nursing, LLC/Kensington Healthcare Center

Hospitals Where Patient was Treated

• Holy Cross Hospital

Negligence

• Failing to develop a comprehensive care plan for each resident
• Failure to provide medical, nursing, rehabilitative, diagnostic, curative, and custodial services to each resident in accordance with their plan of care
• Failure to provide each resident with appropriate supervision and assistance to meet their needs and prevent physical injury

Specific Counts Pled

• Negligence

Plaintiff's Experts and Areas of Specialty

• Jonathan Klein, M.D. - board certified in Internal Medicine and geriatric medicine

Getting a Lawyer for Your Nursing Home Negligence Claim

If you have suffered as a result of the negligence a nursing home, contact Miller & Zois. We have a very long history of results in nursing home cases in Maryland, earning large verdicts and settlements. Call us today at (800) 553-8082 or get a free online case review.

More Malpractice Claim Information

• Other nursing home cases filed in Maryland in 2017:
  • A wrongful death bedsore case filed in Anne Arundel County
  • A nursing home wrongful death claim against Shady Grove, a Genesis facility
  • A case filed in January against a FutureCare facility alleging the failure to give physical therapy and bed sores
  • A case filed in Baltimore City after a woman dies from sepsis due to untreated bed sores
  • A UTI infection case filed against a Baltimore County nursing home
  • A case from February after a woman died following a hip fracture
  • A nursing home fall lawsuit against Bay Manor Nursing Home

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