Kindred faces $2 million verdict in nursing home assault case

The Headline Reads: "Kindred faces $2 million verdict in nursing home assault case with no eyewitnesses" -from today's (2-24-14) McKnight's Long Term Care News




According to the Article: "A jury recently slapped Kindred Healthcare with a $2 million verdict in a resident abuse case that turned on testimony from medical experts, attorneys announced Thursday.

The plaintiff, 87-year-old Jeanne Stanford, was residing at a Kindred facility in Massachusetts when she was found with genital bruising and bleeding, according to court documents. Kindred argued she sustained the injuries in a fall, while her lawyers argued that she had been assaulted. ........

There were no eyewitnesses to an assault, so Stanford's legal team relied on hospital records and testimony from medical experts to make its case during the trial in December.

“At the time we learned of the allegations we conducted a thorough investigation and do not believe the assault occurred,” Kindred Vice-President of Communications Susan Moss told McKnight's. “In addition, the incident was investigated by the Department of Public Health and the Police and they did not substantiate that an assault occurred.”




Actually, As lead Trial counsel I can state that the primary testimony regarding the sexual assault came from 2 TREATING DOCTORS, first and foremost. Also the victim (who was NOT Jeanne Stanford as described above) had dementia and had very pronounced short term memory loss. One assessment in the Defendant's own records indicated a memory as short as 5 minutes. The 85 year old victim wasn't interviewed by ANY Doctors, nurses or Police until the NEXT day - a period well beyond her memory capacity. One can assume that one possible reason Police didn't press charges was because the victim was incompetent to testify because of her memory deficits. Two male aides in charge of her care were relieved and never brought back to work there.




Kindred faces $2 million verdict in nursing home assault case with no eyewitnesses - Print Article - McKnight's Long Term Care News