Missouri Confidential Settlement
FACILITY DIDN’T MONITOR BLOOD THINNER CLOSELY
The family of a woman who died after a stay at a nursing home agreed to a settlement of its claims regarding her care.
As part of the wrongful death settlement agreement, the names of the plaintiffs, the nursing home and its attorney were kept confidential.
The plaintiffs’ mother was admitted to the Missouri nursing home while recuperating from a fall at her home, plaintiffs’ attorneys Dollar, Burns & Becker explained. The woman required assistance while her ribs healed and monitoring of her anticoagulation therapy.
Within 30 days of the woman’s admission to the nursing home, she was found nonresponsive in her room and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with a hemorrhagic stroke. The woman died seven days later.
Dollar, Burns, Becker & Hershewe alleged that the facility failed to follow a doctor’s orders to monitor the patients anticoagulation therapy. A nursing home’s failure to follow physician’s orders to administer Coumadin, a blood thinning medication, can lead to stroke and death, which is what happened in this case.
The attorney for the nursing home was contacted but declined to comment on the case or the settlement.
The parties reached an agreement through mediation in October. The descendent’s children and grandchildren shared in the settlement.
“It was a good result for our clients,” Dollar, Burns, Becker & Hershewe stated. “You can’t change what happened, but my clients are happy to put this behind them.”