New Mexico Appeals Court Upholds $2.5 Million Jury Award to Family in Nursing Home Case.
The decision, by the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico, came in the case of the Estate of Inez Martinez vs the Las Cruces, NM nursing home, Village at Northrise (VNR) and parent companies.
On April 15, 2010, Inez Martinez, age 82, was admitted to VNR where she was to recuperate from pacemaker implantation surgery for an anticipated stay of 20 days, according to the court decision. She was discharged on May 5, 2010, by order of her attending physician, who was credentialed to see patients at the facility. Martinez died shortly thereafter as a result of sepsis caused by a wound infection (staph) at her incision, according to the court decision.
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The doctor never examined Martinez’s incision during her stay at VNR, and it was later revealed at trial that attending physicians were not required to come to the facility to see their patients, the decision said. Martinez did see physicians on two occasions: first on April 23, when her cardiologist found that her incision was healing well, and again on May 3, when she met with her attending physician at his office and was cleared for discharge. But by all accounts, the attending physician ordered Martinez’s discharge without removing her bandage, making that off-site meeting effectively useless for diagnosing a wound infection, according to the court decision.
On May 4, after the off-site meeting but prior to discharge, a nurse at VNR noted “scabbed pus” around Martinez’s incision. The nursing staff applied antibiotic ointment, covered the incision with sterile gauze, and notified the attending physician by fax of what had been observed and what had been done. The doctor signed the fax, presumably indicating that he read it; but he did not modify his discharge order, he left no instruction for the nursing staff, and — in accordance with his normal practice — he did not come to the facility to see his patient.
The next day, Martinez complained of a “[m]oderate, severe pain” that was progressing from the site of her pacemaker to her left shoulder. This time without notifying the attending physician, staff administered two doses of narcotic pain medication and discharged Martinez from the facility pursuant to the doctor’s May 3 order, said the court decision.
Once home, Martinez’s condition rapidly deteriorated. She was hospitalized with a wound infection that had become septic. She received aggressive treatment, but her symptoms worsened: she developed stress ulcers, hypoxemia, liver damage, and kidney failure. Martinez died at the hospital — 31 days after her admission to VNR.
The district court awarded damages of $2.5 million plus 8 percent interest amounting to $334,246.
The appeals court in an opinion filed September 15, 2016, said: “We affirm with respect to [VNR], which is liable for the negligent acts or omissions of its employees.” The court set aside the judgment against the corporate parent defendants and remanded the case back to the district court for a reassessment of the interest award.
The case was reported in a story in the Albuquerque Journal on May 7, 2017.
The Appeals Court discussion is available here and in the Court Documents section.
