$4.1 Million Verdict Against Nursing Home
Attorney
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A jury awarded a family $4.1 million and found against a Tennessee nursing home that was caring for the patient. The lawsuit alleged that the nursing home was understaffed, which resulted in the man being improperly attended to and as a result he suffered from bedsores, an undiagnosed hip fracture and other medical problems.
A proposed law in Tennessee, however, would severely limit the award. If the law is passed there would be a cap on pain and suffering awards of $250,000. The cap would allow plaintiffs to recover no more than $250,000 against health care practitioners and $250,000 against health care facilities.
A cap like this would severely decrease any award that elderly in a nursing home would be able to receive because the rest of the award would depend on things such as economic loss. Many of these people do not have jobs, and therefore, cannot recover for economic loss.
Proponents to the law argue that without caps nursing homes will be forced out of business because of such high awards. But why should this be a problem? These nursing homes are not providing adequate care and should either provide better care so lawsuits are not brought against them, or they should be forced to close when their negligent care is discovered.
A large award is a punishment being handed down to these poorly ran nursing homes. If they cannot afford to stay in business then maybe the award is doing just what is necessary, getting rid of these poor functioning and dangerous facilities.