Nursing home patient suffers pressure ulcer injuries, dies — $925,000 settlement

Type of action: Negligence and tort

Injuries alleged: Multiple pressure ulcers causing death

Date resolved: June 23, 2025

Special damages: Past medical bills: $25,346.37; funeral expenses: $7,955.80

Amount: $925,000

Attorneys for plaintiff: Ellen C. Bognar, Charlottesville, Allen Allen Allen & Allen

Description of case: This negligence case involves the defendant skilled nursing facility’s failure to properly offload pressure, leading to multiple pressure injuries and death.

The 84-year-old decedent was admitted to the defendant facility from the hospital with one stage 1 pressure injury to her sacrum, incontinence and a Braden score of 13. She was totally dependent on staff for toileting and bed mobility.

The decedent was first seen by a contracted wound care NP eight days after admission, by which time she had developed a stage 3 sacral pressure ulcer and deep tissue injuries to her right heel, foot, thigh and left ischium. Within a month, the sacral and left ischial pressure ulcers became unstageable. Two weeks later, the wound care NP opined that the sacral wound was “likely Kennedy ulcer due to rapidly expanding size and presentation.”

Facility staff recommended hospice but nevertheless transported the decedent to the emergency room for evaluation of “poor appetite, weak, wound ulcers.” Hospital staff diagnosed altered mental status, an acute UTI, AKI, metabolic encephalopathy and sepsis from a large, foul-smelling, infected, stage 4 sacral pressure ulcer with exposed muscle. The decedent died at the hospital eight days later.

The defendant facility claimed that its records proved that its staff had performed assessments, care planned, turned and repositioned, offloaded pressure and provided incontinence care in accordance with the standard of care.

The defense experts were designated to opine that plaintiff’s decedent had been in the final stages of life due to a series of debilitating strokes and profound neurological impairment, that she had multiple risk factors for skin breakdown and her wound progression had been unavoidable and that the wounds had not contributed to her death.

The case resolved two months before trial following mediation.