Hip Fracture and Gangrene Nursing Home Wrongful Death

This nursing home wrongful death claim was filed in Baltimore City after a woman suffered a hip fracture and gangrene as a result of inadequate and inattentive care. It was filed in Health Claims Arbitration on March 12, 2018, and it is the 119^th medical malpractice case filed in Maryland this year.

At some point over a three-day period, a resident of Long Green Center assisted living facility suffered a hip fracture. No one is sure when exactly the woman fractured her hip because the care providers did not record the injury in any of their records. Because the woman was not independently mobile, the injury must have occurred, according to plaintiff's lawyer, while care providers were attempting to move her.

The hip fracture likely happened when the woman was transported back from Good Samaritan following a brief hospitalization. If the injury did occur at that time, then the woman suffered the pain of a major bone fracture for two or three days without treatment. Once the nursing staff finally reported the injury, the woman was transported back to Good Samaritan Hospital. At the time of the woman's discharge, her daughter arranged for her to move to Futurecare Cold Spring.

After residing at her new nursing home for a short time, the woman developed gangrene because the nursing home personnel were not properly cleaning her wounds. Several months later, the woman passed away.

• Making the broken hip claim stick is going to be difficult. You certainly are not going to get a res ipsa instruction that someone must have dropped her because there are just too many other possibilities. You need to allege some act of negligence.
• The wound care case does not offer enough facts for us to access the claim. Plaintiff needs an expert to say that if these wounds had been properly cared for, it is more likely than not that the decedent would have survived.
• Long Green nursing home is not very good and this is not the first lawsuit this nursing home has seen. FutureCare Cold Spring is a little bit better, according to the Medicare ratings.
• When Genesis settles a case in Maryland, they want to stagger the payments for the settlement. Plaintiffs' nursing home lawyers have to stop agreeing to this garbage.
• This lawsuit claims punitive damages. Genesis will file a motion and get this dismissed pretty quickly. There is no intentional tort.
• The lawsuit also requests $10 million in damages. We do not ask for a damage amount in Maryland malpractice cases anymore. The Complaint also seeks 6% prejudgment and post-judgment interest. But there is no pre-judgment interest in a tort claim and there is 10% post-judgment interest. Finally, the Complaint seeks attorneys' fees and costs which is also ridiculous.
• This is yet another malpractice case filed on the very eve of the statute of limitations. Sometimes, nursing home lawyers are forced to do this for reasons outside of their control. But you want to avoid a late filing whenever possible. What if there was negligence by a health care provider at Good Samaritan or the nursing home that was not an agent or servant of that healthcare provider?

• Baltimore City, presumably

• 115 East Melrose Avenue Operations LLC t/a Long Green Center
• Genesis Healthcare Corporation
• The Good Samaritan Hospital of Maryland, Inc.
• Harford Road Health Care, LLC t/a Futurecare Cold Spring

• Good Samaritan Hospital

• Failing to secure the woman's bed.
• Failing to ensure safe transfer to and from the hospital.
• Failing to notice, report, and/or treat a significant bone fracture.
• Failing to adequately clean the woman's wounds and change her bandages.
• Failing to notice and treat gangrene in a timely manner.

• Wrongful Death
• Medical Malpractice
• Negligence
• Breach of Contract
• Punitive Damages

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