Nursing home lawsuit

Ohio

My father age 76 died as a result of an incident at a nursing home. The State of Ohio gave the Nursing home a licensure violation as a direct result. What happened in a nutshell, is the staff basically watched my fathers' health/vitals deteriorated over a period of 48 hours and didn't bother to get him to the emergency room for evaluation/care.

I recently received a letter from the lawyers advising that we'll be going to mediation in a month. The suit initially asked for millions but as I've always been told you can always ask for the moon but what you'll get is far less...

My lawyer tells me that they'll argue that even if they had taken the necessary steps to get him to the ER that he may have died anyway. She is now saying that a figure in the $100,000 range is acceptable.

Question 1: Why sue for millions and then come back to your
client stating it'll be in the range of 100,000?

Question 2: For Southwestern Ohio, is there a way to find out
how these types of judgements have been settled?

Question 3: Obviously, nothing will be acceptable for my families
loss but is the figure of $100,000 a realistic amount?

Where have all the Lawyers gone...

I have to say it....I'm amazed! No response, nada, none what so ever to my post...I'm shocked! Say it ain't so...there's got to be at least one Lawyer out there with some knowledge in this area...I just hope that I don't get any responses from the ones that took the Bar 3 times to pass...

From my (limited) experience in talking to people who've gone through situations like this, the money you receive in settlement is based on a number of factors including the patient's age, earning capacity, and how much of the patient's life was lost due to the malpractice. Your father was past the average life expectancy for his generation, and there's a good chance that taking your father to the ER would not have extended his life by much, if at all. That's why the settlement offer is so low.

Your lawyer should be able to answer your questions about average settlements, as she has all the details and we don't.

Ramoth,

I appreciate your response. I also understand that with your "(limited) experience in talking to people who've gone through situations like this" that it would be hard to respond to each of my questions.

Again Ramoth, thanks for responding as you are the only person that has.

Regards

to ease your mind

First, I'm sorry for your loss. I believe that this offer is a fair amount. My Mom was given 30 doses of brain radiation from Dana Farber Cancer institute for NO REASON at all. Another hospital had diagnosed her with brain cancer. We brought the films to Dana Farbar, I asked "shouldn't we do an MRI to make sure this diagnose is right?" They said "no, that they would use the CT scan that I brought in hand to make her halo for the radiation". We trusted them. Well, she never had brain cancer at all. It had been a stroke all along. The radiation deteriorated her brain (radiation necrosis). She lived for 2 more years losing all of her capabilities, her eyesight, walking etc. , developed dementia from this, and eventually ended up in a coma and died.

We had top notch lawyers. They said we had a case for millions. Well, after 2 years, and countless experts going over her films, they dropped the case. It was undefinable. They had spent alot of money on their experts. The fact is that medical malpractice is very hard to prove in court. The other poster was right on when he said that future earnings of your father, his age, his overall health, all of this and more has to do with the outcome.

As you are, I was in shock. I didn't want this to happen to anyone else. To this day they have no idea of what they did to my Mom. She died at 72. She was healthy 2 years before any of this, she had had a minor stoke though. She had breast cancer 15 years before this happened, the DR.S assumed that the 2 ct spot in her brain had spread from her breast. Well in 15 years, it never did spread!! Everyone thought that this would be a provable case, after all, they never did an MRI, only a CT.

So see, this can be much more complicated than we understand. I am very sorry for your family and what has happened. I hope you get what you believe is a fair settlement. We never got a dime. I would just be happy that the nursing home knows of their neglect and that you receive some compensation. Good luck

Star 43,

I appreciate your input and I to am sorry for your families loss as well. I've talked with others and I've come to the realization that one can never, ever sit back and let others take control. You have to ask questions and then ask many more questions!

In regards to the nursing facility, here's the outcome so far;

1.) DON (Director of Nursing) was fired within 3 months after
this happened to my dad.

2.) The facitility is under new ownership. The company that
owned this facility and others as well got out of the
business entirely.

In closing, think of all those who have family members watching out for them and look what happens. Now, think about all those poor souls that don't.