Largest Florida Bed Sore Settlement: A Case of Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcer
Key Takeaways:
- Severe Injury Development: Neglecting basic turning and positioning protocols can cause a severe, deep hospital pressure ulcer to form during post-surgical inpatient recovery.
- Understaffing Impacts: When hospital staff are completely overworked, critical preventative charting and skin care routines are often entirely missed.
- Inadequate Medical Equipment: Failing to supply specialized pressure-relieving air mattresses and nutritional support constitutes an actionable failure in standard care.
Although we have represented many patients who suffered the development and worsening of severe wounds in the hospital setting, this particular case was especially rewarding. Wounds caused by neglect during an inpatient stay require immediate investigation, as a severe pressure ulcer is almost always entirely preventable with proper nursing intervention.
Our client was a very active senior playing tennis at 78 years old. Unfortunately, he fell while on the court and suffered a hip fracture.
Holding Facilities Accountable for a Hospital Pressure Ulcer
After surgical repair of his hip fracture, the hospital was so understaffed and its personnel were so overworked that they could not regularly reposition our client. This systemic failure directly triggered the rapid development and worsening of a very large hospital pressure ulcer on his backside.
To compound the problem, the hospital failed to obtain a specialty mattress and adequate nutritional support to help heal the wound, and it continued to grow in size and depth.
Ultimately, the gaping, cavernous wound grew to 8 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep. Not surprisingly, the wound was excruciatingly painful and required a significant surgery and extensive treatment to heal.
Due to the incredibly substandard and lacking nursing care, we successfully made a claim for punitive damages against the hospital and proceeded to trial.
On the second day of trial, the case settled for a confidential amount believed to be the largest pressure ulcer settlement amount paid in Florida to date to settle a case involving a hospital pressure ulcer.