The patient was seventy-one years old. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and had osteoporosis. She could stand with a walker, but she could not walk. She could sit for up to two hours and could ride in a car.

   She had had both her hips replaced. Her physician believed replacing both her knees would improve her mobility. He had her admitted to a rehab facility for physical therapy to improve her mobility prior to knee-replacement surgery. Over the next several days she was seen by the orthopedic surgeons. They decided she was not an acceptable candidate for knee replacement.

   She stayed at the rehab facility anyway. The orthopedists and her physician worked out a treatment plan to be followed in the rehab facility aimed at increasing her mobility short of restoring the ability to ambulate independently.

   Eleven days into her stay, however, both her legs were broken, each in two places, by the facility’s nurses while attempting to transfer the patient from her bed to a wheelchair. She ended up in full leg casts for two months. Afterward she could no longer stand even with a walker, could not sit for more than twenty minutes and essentially had to spend the rest of her life prone in bed.