Nursing Home Sued After Deadly Medication Mixup
A South Carolina nursing home will pay $400,000 to the grieving wife of a deceased resident after she filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility in 2022. According to the plaintiff, the staff’s negligence—and a serious mistake in medication dosage—led to her husband’s death. Attorneys for the nursing home agreed to the settlement but denied any wrongdoing in the patient’s death, according to a settlement approval document filed in March.
The plaintiff filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home in September 2022 after her 77-year-old husband died at the nursing home on August 15, 2020. According to the lawsuit, he had been admitted to the hospital in late July after he contracted sepsis from a urinary tract infection. According to the lawsuit, he was transferred from the hospital two days before his death “due to a change in his condition and medical decline.
During the decedent’s stay at the nursing home, according to the lawsuit, he was given 90 milligrams of fluoxetine daily instead of weekly as he was prescribed. The lawsuit contended that the extremely high dosage interacted with his heart medication and caused “an overdose of medication” according to an affidavit signed by a registered nurse that was filed alongside the lawsuit.
Commonly known as Prozac, fluoxetine is an antidepressant with certain side effects including nausea, dizziness, shaking, and flu-like symptoms. The maximum recommended dose of Prozac is 80 mg per day. The decedent’s autopsy revealed bleeding in his scalp and fractures to five of his ribs, according to court documents. The nursing staff had not informed his family that he had been injured and failed to document any falls within the facility.
Records indicate that the decedent “suffered from deteriorating mental status” during his two-week stay at the nursing home.
Elements of negligence in a nursing home neglect lawsuit
Nursing homes have all the same problems that both hospitals and hotels have. Not only do they have to contend with medical malpractice lawsuits, they also have to deal with premises liability lawsuits (as in slips and falls). In this case, the allegations against the nursing home are similar to medical malpractice allegations. The nursing home was accused of failing to give the decedent the proper dose of medication. Instead of administering his daily recommended dosage, they gave him a week’s supply of Prozac on a daily basis. It’s the sort of mistake that should never happen and an indication of just how far nursing home neglect can go.
Talk to a Springfield, IL Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Attorney Today
The Springfield personal injury attorneys at Patel Law, PC represent the interests of grieving family members in lawsuits filed against negligent nursing homes. Call our office today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin investigating your allegations right away.
Source:
islandpacket.com/news/business/article302042399.html
