Medical Malpractice

Man Gets Out of Bed Alone After Nurse Fails to Respond to Request for Assistance to Bathroom - Fall When Bed Moves as He Returns to Bed - Fractured Hip With Decline and Death - $125,000 Settlement.


The plaintiff’s decedent underwent heart valve repair surgery in February 2005. The decedent summoned a nurse to help him walk to the bathroom. The nurse did not come and the decedent went to the bathroom unassisted. On the trip back he placed his hand on the bad to get back into bed, but the bed moved and he fell.

The decedent suffered a fractured left hip which was repaired with surgery. The decedent deteriorated and he experienced delirium, loss of appetite, retention of fluids, bed sores and infection. The decedent died from respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia in March 2005 at the age of sixty-eight.

The plaintiff claimed that the decedent was not provided proper assistance to safely ambulate to and from the bathroom. The plaintiff also claimed that the hospital did not have adequate nursing staff, had failed to lock the brakes on the bed or inspect the bed to make sure the brakes operated properly, and had not properly monitored the decedent.

The defendant claimed that the decedent got out of bed despite instructions not to do so and was comparatively negligent in causing his own injuries.

A $125,000 settlement was reached.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.