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Baltimore Wrongful Death Bed Sore Lawsuit | Nursing Home Attorneys

Hargrove v. FutureCare Sandtown

This is a nursing home bed sore wrongful death lawsuit filed in Baltimore City. According to the Complaint, it is a classic pressure sore assisted living case: a bedridden patient who did not get the repositioning and other care she needed.

Summary of Plaintiff's Allegations

This is a bed sore nursing home negligence case. Plaintiffs claim their mother died because the nursing home staff deviated from the standard of care by failing to timely recognize the signs and symptoms of her various medical conditions.

An elderly woman is admitted for long-term nursing services at Future Care. At the time of her admission and throughout her entire stay at Future Care, she is immobile and increasingly bedridden. She requires assistance for transfers in and out of bed as well as repositioning.

After a few years as a resident, the woman develops a sacral decubitus ulcer. Future Care documents and records the ulcer as "unstageable", which means the surface of it is covered with yellow, brown, black or dead tissue and it is unknown how deep the wound goes. A few days later, she is transferred to Bon Secours Baltimore Health System for evaluation and treatment for her altered mental status and fever.

Upon physical examination at Bon Secours, the woman is diagnosed with altered mental status, sepsis, fever, acute kidney injury, dehydration and sacral decubitus ulcer. She is also documented as being severely dehydrated and to be septic possibly as a result of the sacral ulceration. A couple days after the initial examination, Bon Secours also documents a fracture in the woman's right proximal humerus. The cause of this injury was not documented in any of Future Care's records. This has nothing to do with the patient's death but tells us something about the patient's overall level of care.

The woman undergoes surgery at Bon Secours to insert a feeding tube and to perform an excisional debridement of her sacral decubitus ulcer. After the completion of the surgery, the woman is found with agonal breathing and no pulse. Soon after the surgery, she is pronounced dead, with the cause of death listed as sepsis.

The woman's children file medical malpractice wrongful death and survival claims against the Defendants, claiming that they violated the standard of care by failing to properly monitor and treat the woman. Their lawsuit alleges that if Defendants had timely and properly treated the woman's medical conditions, she would not have developed sepsis and would have survived.

Negligence
  1. Failing to properly identify and/or diagnose skin breakdown
  2. Failing to properly and/or timely treat patients with identified skin breakdown
  3. Failing to take precautions for patients with high risk for skin breakdown
  4. Failing to maintain appropriate care plans for patients
Specific Counts Pled
  1. Negligence (Survival Action)
  2. Respondent Superior (Survival Action)
  3. Negligence (Wrongful Death Action)
  4. Respondent Superior (Wrongful Death Action)
JurisdictionDefendants
  • Future Care Sandtown
Hospitals Involved TreatmentAdditional Comments
  • It is well established that patients who are immobile or bedridden are at an increased risk for skin breakdown. These patients require close monitoring, and failing to adequately monitor and appropriately reposition these patients often leads to skin ulcers. This is such a softball for nursing homes and it is incredible how many nursing homes cannot perform these basic tasks to protect their patients.
  • This is a FutureCare case involving death from a bed sore in Baltimore City. The chances that FutureCare does not settle this case approaches zero absent some pretty compelling facts.
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