By Clark Kauffman
The Des Moines Register
DES MOINES, Iowa — A Polk County jury has ordered the owners of a Grinnell nursing home to pay almost half a million dollars to the estate of a man who died after an accident at the facility.
The jury verdict is unusual in that lawsuits against nursing homes are rare, partly because the elderly victims of abuse or neglect have little life expectancy and no earnings potential. That dramatically reduces any potential jury award, even in cases of obvious neglect.
The accident at Grinnell’s Friendship Manor Care Center occurred in June 2009. Wilbur Jackson, 89, a retired farmer, had been at the facility for just 17 days. It was expected to be a short-term stay, with Jackson receiving rehabilitation to help with a surgically repaired hip.
After Jackson’s physician ordered tests at a nearby hospital, an ambulance was summoned to Friendship Manor. A crew from Midwest Ambulance Service of Iowa strapped Jackson to a gurney and wheeled him from his room toward the facility’s driveway, where the ambulance was parked. At the time, Jackson was alert and joking with the staff.
When the gurney was moved outside the facility’s exit, one of its wheels dropped into a crack in the walkway. The gurney flipped over, and Jackson’s head struck the pavement. He lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness. He died on July 5, 2009, leaving behind his wife of 64 years, Mabel Jackson.
His family sued the South Dakota company that owns and manages Friendship Manor, as well as Midwest Ambulance.
Last week, a Polk County jury ruled in the family’s favor and assessed the damages at $546,386. Ninety percent of the fault was assigned to Friendship Manor, resulting in a $491,747 judgment against the facility. Midwest Ambulance was judged to be 10 percent at fault and was ordered to pay $54,639.
“It was a tragic accident,” said Patrick McNulty, the Des Moines attorney for Midwest Ambulance. “Obviously, the jury found the lion’s hare of fault was with Friendship Manor, but we accept that share of the responsibility the jury gave us.”
Friendship Manor’s attorney, Daniel Hartnett of Sioux City, could not be reached for comment.
In the months prior to the trial, officials with Friendship Manor gave depositions in which they said the cracks in the walkway had existed for years but hadn’t been considered a threat to anyone’s safety.
Richard Achenbach, who was the administrator at Friendship Manor at the time of the accident, said in his deposition that he repaired the cracks in the walkway after examining them the morning after the accident. “When I seen the crack like that, I considered it could be a safety issue,” Achenbach said.
In his deposition, owner Tim Boyle said he was aware of the cracks and knew that rebar - steel used to reinforce concrete - was exposed and protruding through them. “Although the rebar was exposed ... it did not stick up far enough to be hazardous,” Boyle said.
Boyle is the former board president at the Iowa Healthcare Association. He has helped lead the industry fight for a less punitive method of regulating Iowa nursing homes, and hosted legislative fundraisers in his South Dakota home.
In the wake of Jackson’s death, Friendship Manor was fined $3,250 by the federal government. The family’s lawyer, Thomas P. Slater of West Des Moines, said fines of that size aren’t sufficient to generate meaningful changes in care facilities, many of which are run by private investment firms.
He noted that $425,000 of the jury award was compensation for Mabel Jackson’s loss of consortium. That shows the jury recognized the unique value of a long-term marital relationship, even if it was nearing its end based on average life expectancy, he said.
Friendship Manor has a history of regulatory violations. In 2005, employee Lesley Polek was convicted of sexually abusing residents of the home. Two co-workers said they had seen Polek abuse residents on several occasions.
In 2008, the home was hit with $112,650 in federal fines after the death of resident Ruth Louden, 89, one of whose legs was amputated because of gangrene. Boyle appealed the fine but later settled the case by paying $75,397 to the federal government.
At the time, the Iowa Healthcare Association told state lawmakers the fines threatened the existence of Friendship Manor. The Legislature subsequently passed a bill requiring the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals to collaborate with the nursing home industry in some of its enforcement efforts.
Republished with permission from The Des Moines Register