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May 15, 2010

Two civil lawsuits

An article in the Bee today is of some interest to me, since there are two civil suits that I am aware of that have many identical elements.

The alike elements are these:

  • A civil suit was filed for wrongful death, filed by the decedent's daughter.
  • The plaintiff attorney is Ed Dudensing.
  • The defendent is Horizon West Healthcare.
  • The decedent is an old woman with dementia who cracked a bone and died from an infection she incurred while staying at a facility run by the defendent.
Differences in the two suits include these:

 Suit #1 went to trial and a jury awarded the daughter $28 million, which, according to the Bee article, is "the largest personal injury award in [Sacramento] County history."
 Suit #2 is in litigation.

 Suit #1 The deceased woman is Frances Tanner and the daughter is Elizabeth Pao. (Two people I'd never heard of.)
 Suit #2 The deceased woman is my mother Mary Criner and the daughter is my sociopathic sister Carol Armstrong. (Two people I know best in the world.)

5 comments:

Mumon K said...

That other result must be due to negligence that caused the fall. After a certain age a fall is a death sentence.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure how much of a factor the hip fracture was in causing the death and in the punitive portion of the award re Ms. Tanner. The article says she died of an infected bed sore.

My poor mother cracked a vertebra, that was far down her spinal column while at home, was sent to a Horizon West Healthcare facility, and there died six weeks later from sepsis she contracted.

Unknown said...

What I wrote isn't entirely true: My mother died at a Kaiser facility she was rushed to after her condition became dire.

Buddhist_philosopher said...

Good luck with this, Tom. I've heard all too much about health care facilities over the last few years and know well that they can be both havens of amazing people doing heroic work and money-thirsty jerks who care little for their clients or families.

I'm so sorry for your mother and Ms. Tanner and your families. I hope the future brings both justice and healing to you all.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Bud Phil, but I cannot imagine what justice or good luck would look like.