Group Home Negligence Abuse and Hip Fracture

Key Takeaways

• Negligent Transfer & Verbal Abuse: A group home aide ignored a mandatory two-person transfer protocol, dropping a disabled resident and verbally berating her while she lay on the floor with a broken hip.
• Delayed Emergency Care: The facility inexplicably waited an hour and a half before calling 911, leaving the resident in excruciating pain prior to her surgical repair.
• Life-Changing Settlement: Our lawsuit forced the defense into early mediation, resulting in a large confidential settlement that allowed the client’s family to safely relocate her to a facility in Maryland.

Group Home Negligence Settlement: Improper Transfer and Delayed Medical Care

Our client, a 49-year-old developmentally disabled woman, was residing in a Florida group home when she suffered severe physical injury and emotional abuse due to grossly negligent care. Despite her care plan explicitly requiring the assistance of two staff members for wheelchair transfers, a single aide attempted to move the client unassisted. During this unsafe transfer, our client was dropped and suffered an excruciatingly painful hip fracture.

Because of her broken hip, the client was physically unable to stand when the aide demanded she get up. Instead of providing medical help, the aide verbally abused her, yelling at her to “get your big lazy ass up” and accusing her of faking the injury. Compounding this egregious abuse, the group home staff failed to call 911 immediately. They left our client suffering on the floor for an hour and a half before finally reporting the injury and transporting her to the hospital for necessary surgical repair.

Warner & Warner filed a lawsuit against the facility to hold them accountable. Facing our aggressive prosecution of the claim, the defendant’s insurance company requested early mediation and agreed to resolve the case for a large, confidential amount. Most importantly, these settlement funds provided the financial means for the client’s brother to move her out of the Florida group home and into a safe, supportive facility near his home in Maryland where she is now surrounded by family.