Alachua County jury awards widow $2.3M in Gainesville nursing home lawsuit
A Gainesville nursing home was ordered earlier this month to pay $2.3 million to the widow of a woman who died as a result of a bedsore wound caused by staff's negligence, court documents show.
An Alachua County jury decided on Aug. 10 that Parklands Facility Inc., operating as Parklands Care Center, at 1000 SW 16th Ave. in Gainesville, is responsible for the death of Claretha Davis, who died in April 2021 following an infected bedsore.
Attorney Scott Fischer, with Palm Beach Gardens-based law firm Gordon & Partners, on behalf of Davis' estate and her husband, Alfred Davis, said after the verdict that the nursing home industry is in need of much improvement.
"It's fulfilling for justice to be served, not only for this family but for Floridians in general, because there are so many tragedies that occur in nursing homes, and it gets brushed under the table so often," Fischer said, according to Law360, a subscription-based, legal news service.
Damages sought included those for Alfred Davis' "loss of companionship and extreme mental pain and suffering," as well as for Claretha Davis' medical and funeral costs.
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According to the complaint filed in January 2022, Davis, a resident of Parklands Care Center, developed a "wound to the left buttock" on Nov. 26, 2019. No care or treatment plans were implemented, the complaint said.
She was hospitalized from April 23 to May 1, 2020, for the wound, and by Aug. 26, the complaint says the wound had turned into a "gruesome" State 4 pressure sore.
The lawsuit also accused Parklands Care Center staff of entering false information in her record, as it noted skin treatment at the facility on April 26, the same time she was hospitalized.
Davis was hospitalized again on Dec. 31, 2020, where she was found to be septic from an infected Stage 4 bedsore, with MRSA and suspected osteomyelitis, the complaint says. The injury could not be healed.
Davis entered hospice care on March 31, 2021. She died April 19, 2021, at age 72.
Fischer told the jury that Davis' bedsore led to an infection that spread to both her blood and bones, according to Law360.
Attorney Mark Humphrey, representing Parklands Care Center, opened up the facility's defense by noting Davis' history of health problems.
"She was at our facility for 1,437 days … The family at no point, you will hear, complained about the care and treatment," Humphrey said.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Parklands Care Center in Gainesville found negligent in patient death
