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Dementia Patient Assaulted: Court Sees Grounds For Family’s Lawsuit.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
As a general rule only the participants are to blame for the consequences of their choice to engage in mutual combat.
However, the rules are very different when a caregiver has the legal duty to protect the participants from harm and the means and the legal authority to control their behavior. COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA March 19, 2019
The victim was admitted to a skilled nursing facility for paranoia, confusion and Alzheimer’s dementia. Two months into his stay he started picking physical fights with other patients, including the one who would later push him down and inflict a fatal head injury. Until that final incident the altercations were broken up by facility staff with no injuries.
On the day in question the victim and the other resident had a harmless scuffle in the morning but that evening a second scuffle caused a fatal closed head injury.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled the skilled nursing facility could be held liable for the negligence of the nursing assistants on duty who knew from what happened earlier in the day that the perpetrator and the victim needed to be watched carefully and kept apart. The Court went on to rule that the family’s case is a healthcare liability lawsuit. For one thing that means that Pennsylvania’s sovereign immunity law does not apply to the aides’ liability. It could also mean that expert testimony as to the standard of care will be expected.
Byrne v. Commonwealth, 2019 WL 1284539 (Pa. Cmmwth., March 19, 2019).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/assault2.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/assault-psychiatric-patient.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/assault-patient-caregiver.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/dementia-care-nursing-facility.pdf