Brown County jury awards $2 million in death of resident of now-closed Birch Creek assisted living facility
GREEN BAY - A Brown County jury reached a $2 million verdict against a senior living operator after a resident of one of the facilities died, the family said in a lawsuit.
The resident, Jolene Shea, lived in Birch Creek, a community-based residential facility in west De Pere that is now closed. The Birch Creek operator, Meridian Senior Living, which currently operates The Landings of Kaukauna in Outagamie County, was found liable for violating standards of having adequate staffing and trained people to administer medication.
On April 28, the jury determined that Meridian's "negligence" played a role in Shea's death, according to the verdict. The jury awarded $2 million in punitive damages and $579,000 to Shea's family.
Shea's family sued Meridian in March 2020.
Shea moved into Birch Creek in August 2019 because its website said the facility provided "on-site, dedicated staff available 24 hours a day," according to a complaint filed in Brown County.
Shea would need regular care and Birch Creek said it would be available to her all day. That would include providing meals and snacks, administering her medicine, housekeeping, and overnight care.
During her time at the facility, Shea started to require more care and needed help going to the bathroom. Her family came to an agreement with Birch Creek that they would provide that level of care and check on Shea more regularly at night, closer to every couple of hours, the complaint states.
When Shea had an "urgent health problem" the evening of Sept. 28, 2019, the staff didn't check on her, the complaint states. Staff checked on her at 5:30 p.m. that day. At 10 a.m. Sept. 29, 2019, they found Shea lying in her bathroom unresponsive, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint: Staff moved her to the living room, put on an oxygen mask, and called the on-call nurse. But the nurse took more than 30 minutes to call 911. Shea was taken to St. Vincent Hospital 40 minutes later where she was still unresponsive.
She died on Sept. 30, 2019.
"Indications were that Ms. Shea had been without reasonable care for an extended period of time prior to being taken to the hospital," the complaint says.
The facility had a shortage of staff despite state orders to correct them and it had been causing residents to make complaints, according to a news release from the Law Firm of Conway, Olejniczak & Jerry. Those who administer medications at Birch Creek were also not given basic training, the release said.
"Instead, Meridian cut benefits for caregivers resulting in longtime caregivers leaving and making it overly difficult for local managers to hire new caregivers to staff the facility," according to the news release.
"Quality care is a right not just reserved for the privileged few, and the jury held Meridian responsible for disregarding the rights of residents over pressing budgetary staffing expense cuts,” said attorney David Weber in the news release.
Benita Mathew is a health and science reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. Contact her at bmathew@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @benita_mathew.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: $2 million awarded after death of resident of Birch Creek CBRF
