Nursing home patient wins $800,000 in medical malpractice lawsuit

By Daniel Hawn

Published on May 25, 2006

Odessa Washington, 87, and her son, Joe Loyd Washington, filed the lawsuit against Minden’s Meadowview Health and Rehabilitation Center. In it they claimed that Meadowview employees were negligent in their care of Washington while she was a patient of the facility.

According to the lawsuit, Washington was admitted to the nursing home in August 2000. During her stay there, the facility lacked an adequate number of staff members, her attorneys alleged. As a result, Washington received improper care and suffered from malnourishment, dehydration, and a sizeable bedsore that lasted for more than a year, the lawsuit stated. It went on to allege that Meadowview employees left Washington to remain in her own urine and fecal matter for lengthy periods of time.

Washington’s attorneys argued that the center’s improper treatment of Washington constituted not only medical malpractice but a violation of her entitlement to a dignified living state, as defined by Louisiana’s Nursing Home Resident's Bill of Rights.

Agreeing with Washington’s attorneys, the jury awarded Washington and her son $400,000 for medical malpractice and $400,000 for breach of Washington’s right to a dignified existence.

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