2021Ms. Condon, age 86, suffered from advanced dementia, was chair bound, unsteady of balance and had no safety awareness. Her admitting physician described in his physician assessment prior to admission to defendant’s memory care center that she was “not able to recognize danger.” She suffered five falls prior to the fatal fall of April 22, 2019. Before the fatal fall, she had been repeatedly assessed by the unit manager as being a very high fall risk. Ms. Condon’s children described that she had very poor comprehension and no short term memory.
On April 22, 2019 an aide took Ms. Condon to the toilet in her bathroom, assisted her up from her wheelchair and onto the toilet, which had a raised toilet seat, and then left her unattended. The aide closed the door and was in the adjacent room but could not hear Ms. Condon when she finished toileting, nor could she see Ms. Condon when she finished. Ms. Condon got up unassisted from the toilet and fell, suffering severe and life-threatening injuries including five fractured ribs, a sixth rib that angulated into her right lung and a hematoma to the back of her head. She died four days later in the hospital of severe hypoxia and respiratory distress.
Plaintiff’s experts testified that it was a breach of the standard of care to leave Ms. Condon on the raised toilet seat unattended and out of the sight and hearing of the aide. The aide testified that she was not made aware of the five prior falls and no one had told her that Ms. Condon had been assessed as a very high fall risk. Further, Ms. Condon’s daughters had repeatedly told the staff, including the unit manager, that their mother must have a staff member with her at all times during her toileting for her safety and protection. The defense structured their entire case around Ms. Condon’s right to privacy while she went to the toilet. Both of plaintiff’s experts, however, testified that the resident’s safety was paramount over any privacy issue.
Judge James Lewis presided over the jury trial, which lasted four days.