Jury awards $3 million in nursing home abuse lawsuit
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The estate of a Georgia man who went hungry, dehydrated and unkempt in a nursing home was awarded $3 million by jurors who may return Wednesday with added punitive damages. The six-member Pinellas County jury levied the fine against Extendicare Inc., the operator of 282 nursing homes with more than 27,000 residents in the United States and Canada. Charles McCorkle Jr., was a resident at Extendicare Inc.’s Colonial Care Center in Kenneth City. McCorkle’s relatives said the company didn’t provide enough staff to properly care for residents. Last week, Extendicare sold 11 of its Florida nursing homes, including the Colonial Care Center. The company had complained that it was too difficult to continue operating in Florida, where nursing homes are being hit hard by lawsuits over patient neglect and are losing their insurance. McCorkle’s family said during the nine months he lived at Colonial Care Center in 1997 and 1998, the facility didn’t have enough nursing assistants to keep him properly fed, give him water or keep him from getting bedsores. At one point, he was hospitalized for a bedsore infected with gangrene. The family eventually moved McCorkle out of the facility to a relative’s house where he died. “Short staffing was the key to the issue in this case,” said the estate’s attorney Bennie Lazzara. Extendicare declined comment on the verdict, citing the continuing deliberations on punitive damages. Source : polkonline.com |