Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit in Baltimore City

Jones v. Westgate Hills Rehabilitation Center

This is a nursing home negligence lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of a man in Baltimore City who died after swallowing a penny. This wrongful death claim was filed in Health Claims Arbitration on March 17, 2017, and is the 123^rd medical malpractice case filed in Maryland in 2017.

Summary of Plaintiff's Allegations

A man is a long-term resident of defendant Westgate Hills Rehabilitation Center, a very average ranked nursing home in Baltimore City. He is bedbound, immobile, cognitively impaired, and dependent on the use of a feeding tube and colostomy bag. After about six years, he is allowed to swallow a penny while only being fed and given water through a feeding tube.

His family alleges that as a result of the defendant's negligence, he suffered permanent injuries. These include lacerations to his esophagus, a block to his gastrointestinal tract, and hospitalizations. As a result of these injuries, the man died. The family's nursing home lawyers claim that if defendant had provided care that was within the medical standard, the man would have enjoyed a normal life expectancy in accordance with his condition.

Additional Comments

• Obstruction of the upper airway by food or other foreign objects is a well-known cause of sudden unexpected death. It is surprising there is no claim that instruments to extract foreign objects should be readily available in nursing homes. Arguably a nursing home should have rat-tooth forceps to remove coins that particularly kids tend to swallow. Perhaps the man died long before anyone was in position to try to extract the coin.
• Big questions that have to be answered: how did the coin get in his room and how long was it there?
• We try to speak frankly about how juries will view the medical malpractice cases we summarize. Are there some jurors who are going to believe that young man led a very difficult life and is no better off? Even if they believe that, might so angry at the nursing home they focus instead on their mistakes?

Jurisdiction

• Baltimore City

Defendants

• Westgate Hills Operator, LLC (Westgate Hills Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center)

Negligence

• Failure to adequately monitor, assess, and treat plaintiff's medical condition
• Failure to ensure plaintiff was properly hydrated and nourished
• Failure to ensure plaintiff's changes in condition were properly observed, assessed, monitored, and reported to an appropriate physician
• Allows plaintiff to access a penny and allowing him to swallow the penny
• Failure to adequately assess, monitor, care, treat, and maintain plaintiff's condition

Specific Counts Pled

• Negligence - Survival Action
• Wrongful Death Action

Plaintiff's Experts and Areas of Specialty

• None at this time

Getting a Lawyer for Your Nursing Home Negligence Claim

If you or someone you know has suffered due to the negligence of a doctor or nursing home staff, the lawyers at Miller & Zois can help you. Miller & Zois has a very long history of results in nursing home negligence 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 malpractice cases filed in Maryland in 2017:
  • A wrongful death bedsore case in Anne Arundel County
  • Another wrongful death case, this one filed against a Genesis Healthcare facility
  • A nursing home negligence case filed after a woman falls fifteen times during her stay at Bay Manor Nursing Home
  • A nursing home malpractice case filed after a woman both falls and develops a bed sore
• Take a look at the average settlements and verdicts in nursing home negligence cases in Maryland
• Information about almost every nursing home in Maryland

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