NURSING HOME LOSES $83 M FOR WRONGFUL DEATH, FRAUD

CASE TYPE: negligence, fraud CASE: Holder v. Beverly Enterprises Texas Inc., 95437 (Dist. Ct., Rusk Co., Texas)
PLAINTIFF’S ATTORNEYS: David T. Marks, of Houston’s The Marks Firm: David Hill, of Henderson, Texas’ Wellborn, Houston, Adkinson, Mann, Sadler & Hill; and Timothy Lee, of Houston’s Ware, Snow, Fogel, Jackson & Greene
DEFENSE ATTORNEYS: Deanna Smith and Nathan Rymers, of Houston’s Carlson & Smith
JURY VERDICT: $83 million
RUTH WAITES was 83 years old when she began living at the Borger Nursing Center, in Borger, Texas, in 1993. At the time, said plaintiffs counsel David T. Marks, Ms. Waites was mentally alert, but largely unable to walk and a diabetic. While at the Borger home, he said, Ms. Waites became severely dehydrated and was hospitalized. After she returned to the center, she developed pressure sores and was hospitalized again. These bed sores were so severe, he said, that hospital staff “cut out hunks of rotten tissue,” from her body. Ms. Waites died Oct. 29, 1994; the cause of death, Mr. Marks said, was “infected pressure sores.”

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