Tucker nursing home must pay $1.25M for man’s suffering
Nursing assistants testified they were understaffed and could not provide needed care
By TY TAGAMI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, December 22, 2008
Melvin Raybon died in pain four years ago, and a DeKalb County jury agreed that the cause of his suffering was neglect at the Tucker nursing home where he lived for nine months.
A state court jury awarded Raybon’s daughter $1.25 million, concluding a 4-year lawsuit over the care her father received at the Tucker Nursing Center.
The center, on Idlewood Road in downtown Tucker, was accused of providing inadequate attention to Raybon. He was admitted in 2002 when he turned 67. Nine months later, he had to go to a hospital for treatment of a bed sore that infected his left buttock to the bone, said Columbus attorney Benjamin Land, who led the suit on behalf of Raybon’s estate.
Land said nursing assistants from the nursing home testified there weren’t enough staffers to provide adequate care. Raybon should have been turned over every two hours to alleviate the pressure that leads to bed sores, but Land said he was turned every four hours.
“The last 12 months of his life were miserable,” Land said. “Our argument to the jury was basically that no man should spend his last year on earth like this.”
An attorney for the Tucker nursing home owner said the decision was “an enormous award just for pain and suffering from bed sores.” The attorney, Walter Bush Jr. of Atlanta, said the court didn’t allow the jury to hear evidence that state regulators found no violations in connection with the case, and he said that is a “reversible error,” meaning fertile ground for appeal.
“I haven’t gotten the official word from the client, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t” appeal, he said.
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