What type of standards should be imposed upon nursing and group homes? Should they also be liable for outrageous conduct when they are responsible for injuring the people they are supposed to care for?
A Luzerne County jury has awarded more than $3 million in damages to the family of a developmentally disabled woman who died after workers at a group home failed to get her treatment for injuries she sustained in a car crash. The workers, from the Hope Enterprises facility in Berwick, waited until a previously scheduled appointment the next day to bring Barbara Maines to a doctor. Even then, an attorney for Maines’ estate said, they would not disclose the manner or cause of her injuries.
Jurors awarded $3,118,628 in damages to Maines’ three sisters, a brother and her mother, including $7,284 for funeral costs, $11,343 for medical expenses and $100,000 in punitive damages. On a verdict form, they deemed the company’s conduct “outrageous.”
“This case is about trust and betrayal,” the attorney for the Maines family, Michael J. Pisanchyn, said after the verdict Thursday. “(The family) trusted the home and then, to have the home say they were taking care of Barbara and then not tell the hospital about the injuries, how much more betrayed can you get?”
Read more about the case in The Citizens’ Voice at https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/outrageous-conduct-nets-3m-verdict-1.1393898
If you have an injury or a loved one is injured or killed in a Pennsylvania nursing home which you believe was caused by its negligent, outrageous or reckless conduct, feel free to contact Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers at (717) 888-8888. Our Harrisburg personal injury lawyers specialize in personal injury and can answer any questions you may have about inadequate care at a nursing home. Do not wait. Call 8.