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Texas Family Wins $600k Nursing Home Neglect Bedsore Lawsuit
Posted on Nov 18, 2010
A San Antonio family has won a $600,000 nursing home neglect case in Texas after their loved one died from complications of bed sores he developed while staying at an adult care center that was woefully understaffed. His family said that he also suffered from dehydration and malnutrition.
According to court records, 76-year-old Emilio Gonzalez died at a San Antonio hospital in the fall of 2007 after being transferred from Retama Manor Nursing Center, which is located in western San Antonio. He had spent six years in the nursing home, and had also been in the hospital that year suffering from dehydration – another common sign of nursing home neglect.
During the trial, several nurses from the nursing home agreed that Gonzalez was neglected, reporting that the nursing center was so understaffed that they were often forced to falsify records and ignore the needs of patients. Another said that patients were often only turned every eight hours, whereas medical experts say that they should be turned every two hours to prevent bedsores. Finally, a third nurse testified that Gonzalez smelled like rotting flesh and was often moaning in pain.
The defense argued that the man was elderly, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and dying of cancer – three problems that can certainly mirror the symptoms of neglect, including malnutrition, dehydration, weight-loss, and bedsores. But the nursing home did not provide Gonsalez with hospice care as they should have if the man was indeed in the process of dying from terminal cancer.
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