This case involved an elderly female who was admitted to a skilled nursing facility for a “short-term stay” for the purpose of receiving therapy. While the resident was being transferred to therapy by a physical therapy tech, she was thrown from the wheelchair face-first onto the floor. Rather than notifying the nursing home staff, the tech carried the resident to therapy where she supposedly provided physical therapy treatments.
No medical interventions were taken for the resident for over two hours after the fall. Only after the resident continued to complain of pain, as she was admitted to the hospital where she was found to have a fractured right humerus and suffered multiple facial fractures.
Through informal discovery and investigation, the Sawyer Firm was able to determine that the same physical therapy tech had been involved in a nearly identical incident that resulted in another resident being thrown from a wheelchair just months before this incident.
The employer took no remedial action with the tech following the first incident.
“You have to know how to investigate these claims to get to the truth, “ said J.P. Sawyer. “This harm could have easily been prevented by the nursing home terminating the tech after the first incident”. “This wasn’t just an accident – this was reckless conduct”.
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