Resident falls multiple times in nursing home and suffers stroke during emergency evacuation. $32M. Sonoma County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  Plaintiff, an 88-year-old woman, was a dependent and disabled elder with dementia, profound hearing loss, and high fall risk, who began residing at Arbol Residences, an assisted living facility in 2016. Defendants Life Care Services began running the facility in June 2019. Between June 2019 and September 2020 plaintiff suffered between 20 and 25 falls while in defendants’ care. Defendants did not properly address each fall to mitigate the risk or eliminate future falls.

  In October 2019, Arbol Residences had to be evacuated due to the Kincade fire. Defendants evacuated plaintiff to a facility 80 miles south of Santa Rosa where she was housed, but unsupervised, with 44 other residents. In a seven-hour period she suffered two unwitnessed falls. She fractured her left arm during the second unwitnessed fall. Defendants were unable to identify who was in the room with the residents during the two falls. After being returned from the emergency room, defendants failed to pick up her pain medication. She was not given pain medication for 15 hours after returning to defendants’ care.

  At 10:30 p.m., the staff at the interim facility put plaintiff in a non-medical transport and sent her 80 miles north to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. A doctor at Santa Rosa Memorial ER and a nurse were so concerned about this reckless act that they contacted defendants’ employee to express their concern. They also contacted Adult Protective Services.

  When plaintiff was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial with a fresh humerus bone fracture, she was without any medication, without her hearing aids or a safe discharge plan. Defendants did not know who transferred her to the transport vehicle and released her for the ride 80 miles north toward the wildfire that was still raging. Defendants failed to properly track her after the initial transfer. She was transferred approximately seven times after that and was without her hearing aids for 11 days. When transferring plaintiff 80 miles north, defendants’ employee believed that plaintiff was suffering from a stroke. Despite this concern, she was not sent to the closest trauma center.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  The negligent actions of defendants caused plaintiff to suffer a significant decline during the last years of her life. The falls and defendants’ actions during the wildfire constituted elder abuse, neglect, and abandonment of a dependent elder. Defendants were liable for compensatory damages and punitive damages.

  That despite significant risks and probability of a wildfire, defendants were ill-prepared for that danger. They did not have a proper disaster evacuation plan; they had not properly trained their employees for natural disaster evacuations and had not made proper agreements with other facilities to help them transfer residents in case of a natural disaster.

• Defendant's Contentions:

  Defense contended that they provided appropriate care and that they deserved a defense verdict. This was maintained through the punitive damages phase.