Reported in the Lawyers Weekly
In December 1998 the plaintiff was recovering at the defendant's nursing home after surgery for a cervical spondylosis.
The day before the plaintiff was scheduled to leave the nursing home, he attempted to exit the facility without permission from staff. At this time, it was said that a security guard at the nursing home assaulted the plaintiff.
The plaintiff claimed that the defendant never told him what he could or could not do as far as leaving the nursing home was concerned. Due to the altercation with the security guard, the plaintiff argued that he sustained a displaced anterior cervical plate when falling to the ground, an injury that he had sought treatment for in the past. Because of this injury, the plaintiff had to undergo a second surgery.
The defendant in this case denied that they were responsible for the damages or liability in any way. To better their case, the defendant had several witnesses lined up to testify against the plaintiff. They argued that the plaintiff was a threat to staff, and had injured a nurse in the past. To go along with this, notes written by nurses on the day of the incident showed that he was being difficult as far as his medical treatment was concerned.
The defendant also noted that due to the medical condition, the plaintiff would have been at severe risk of sustaining further injuries by leaving the nursing home. The security guard in question argued that the plaintiff fell on his own when he tripped over his walker, and that no physical contact ever took place between the two of them.
During the two weeks following the incident, the plaintiff had several x-rays taken. On every occasion they came back negative, and showed no further damage. During this time, a cervical MRI also showed that no damage was present, and healing was going as planned.
The plaintiff was complaining of difficulty swallowing, which he believed was caused by cervical injuries. Moreover, the orthopedist who performed the earlier surgery read over the images that were taken of the plaintiff, and claimed to find an anterior displacement. The defendant then hired their own specialist who disagreed with this claim, and stated that the injuries were preexisting.
In the end the matter was mediated for $110,000.00.
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