Annapolis Wrongful Death Bed Sore Lawsuit | Nursing Home Lawyers

(Filed January 10, 2017)

This is a nursing home wrongful death bedsore case filed on behalf of a woman in Anne Arundel County. This was filed in Maryland Health Claims on January 10^th. It is the first nursing home lawsuit it filed in 2017 (11^th medical malpractice case filed).

• Wrongful death bedsore case filed in Annapolis against a Glen Burnie nursing home in 2017
• Another bed sore lawsuit case filed against a nursing home in 2016
• Yet another example bed sore lawsuit
• Hospitals are also often the culprits in these cases

After suffering a stroke, a woman moves into FutureCare, a nursing and rehabilitation center, in Baltimore, Maryland. She lives there for about six months.

She is transferred to defendant's facility, where defendant physician is responsible for her care. At the time of admission, the woman has a rash on her sacral and perineal areas. Defendant physician orders a medication for her, which is used to treat fungal infections on the skin. Despite this, decedent does not have any pressure ulcers. Defendant physician orders that decedent is repositioned every two hours.

The decedent is fully dependent on defendant's staff for turning and repositioning. However, she is not turned as ordered by defendant physician. Within two weeks, she develops two pressure ulcers in her sacral area. At this point, defendant physician re-emphasizes that the decedent needs to be turned and repositioned to her wound care team.

After a little more than a month, woman's pressure ulcers completely heal, and her wound care treatment is discontinued. Pressure ulcer prevention methods, such as turning, are still required according to defendant physician's orders. However, once again, these orders are not followed. Within three months, the staff finds an open area on decedent's buttock, and pressure ulcer management is initiated again. This wound is closed and healed within a few weeks. Ulcer prevention measures are still required after this point.

To no surprise at this point, the woman is not properly turned and repositioned. She develops a large, 7.5 cm x 8.5 cm, sacral pressure ulcer. It is not discovered until it had progressed to the point where 60% of it was covered with necrotic tissue, making it unstageable. It was two centimeters deep. This wound continues to worsen, and the patient continues to not receive proper turning or repositioning.

She undergoes surgical debridements of her wound. During surgery, they discover that the wound site extended below the surface of her skin, in the subcutaneous tissue. Due to the alleged failure to treat or recognize the ulcer, it becomes severely infected and decedent develops extreme fevers. She is transferred from NMS Healthcare to Anne Arundel Medical Center in unstable condition a month and a half after her surgeries.

When decedent arrives at the hospital, she is septic due to the infected pressure ulcer. Her bone has become infected, and she is diagnosed with osteomyelitis. She tests positive for C-diff, due to bacteria overgrowth harming her intestines. The staff at AAMC concludes that there are no ways to alleviate or fix the woman's wounds since they had progressed so far without any treatment. The decedent is transferred to hospice care for a few weeks. She is then transferred back to FutureCare, where she dies a few weeks later.

Her family files this claim on her behalf, arguing that if she had been treated within the applicable standard of care, that she would not have developed pressure ulcers, and would have lived.

• NMS Healthcare has big problems.
• We handle many malpractice cases where a good doctor makes a single foolish mistake that badly harms or kills a patient. A single mistake. The crazy thing about these nursing home bed sore cases is how often the nursing home has to neglect the patient to cause injury. In this case, if the allegations are correct, there were so many opportunities to save this poor woman's life.
• The internist that was sued seems the least culpable based on the facts in the Complaint.

• Anne Arundel County

• New Annapolis Nursing LLC/Bay Ridge Health Care Center
• Neiswanger Management Services, LLC/NMS Healthcare
• Internal Medicine doctor

• Anne Arundel Medical Center

• Failure to strictly follow turning and repositioning instructions
• Failure to adjust decedent's feeding schedule to account for her risk of pressure ulcers
• Failure to properly assess and inspect decedent's body for pressure ulcers
• Failure to take measures to prevent advancement of pressure ulcers and infections

• Medical Negligence - Survival Action
• Medical Negligence - Wrongful Death

• None at this time

Have you or someone you know suffered due to negligence by a nursing home or doctor? Miller and Zois can help you. You deserve justice and monetary compensation. We have a long history of significant verdicts and settlements in nursing home malpractice case (click on the settlements and verdicts link above). Get more information. Give us a call today at (800) 553-8082 or go online for a free consultation.

• What is the most money victims can receive for a case like this given Maryland's damage cap? It depends on of the year the negligence occurred.
• What is the value of bed sore claims in Maryland?
• An example nursing home negligence complaint
• Information about NMS Healthcare
• Information about filing a nursing home malpractice claim in Maryland