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Nursing Home Malpractice

John Doe, age 92, was a resident in Defendant Woe’s skilled nursing home and had a history of dementia and confusion, inability to ambulate without assistance using a walker and a high risk for falls. Following an emergency hospitalization for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), a life-threatening condition, he was left in a weakened state and readmitted to Woe nursing home. Doe usually took his breakfast in the dining room and was always taken by wheelchair and when he finished his meal he would be taken back in his wheelchair to his room. On the morning of this incident, Doe was wheeled in a wheelchair to breakfast and left alone. He finished his meal and the staff removed his food tray. However, no staff member came to escort Doe back to his room or offered him any assistance. Doe thereupon got up from the dining room table and attempted to walk without assistance back toward his room but fell into the wall in the hallway and down to the floor fracturing his right hip. He underwent surgery for his femur fracture, and was unable to participate in rehab. Doe died six weeks later of chronic congestive heart failure. Doe was survived by his four adult children.