Trial on Texas Nursing Home Resident Wrongful Death Case Continues
Seventy-six year old Emilio Gonzalez was first admitted to Southwest General Hospital in July 2007 suffering from severe dehydration. Gonzalez's health was failing as he had decreased mobility due to a stroke and suffered from Parkinson's disease and terminal lung cancer.
His attorneys concede that he may have developed a small bedsore while in the hospital, but they contend that after his return to Retama Manor Nursing Center, his home of six years, and prior to his re-admittance to the hospital on August 20, 2007, his wounds became life-threatening. He died in November 2007.
Gonzalez's daughter, Mary Koenig, testified at trial last week that his bedsores went to the bone prior to his death. Former facility employees testified that the facility was understaffed that that charts reportedly had been falsified. According to Babe Wilson, a nursing assistant, residents were lucky if they were turned once during an eight hour shift, rather than every two hours as was mandated. Nurse David Smith recalled Mr. Gonzalez's painful moans and the "dead-animal" smell emanating from his wounds. Plaintiff's nursing care expert believed federal and state laws were violated due to the inadequate care Gonzalez reportedly received.
Medical experts for nursing home counsel contend that bedsores, dehydration, and lack of nourishment all can be part of the dying process and Dr. Louis Lux found that the biggest oversight was that Mr. Gonzalez did not receive hospice care immediately upon his lung cancer diagnosis. According to Dr. Lux, "He did exactly what a cancer patient would do. There's a slow unraveling of the body here. It affects your skin health. The cancer is robbing his body of nutrition and not allowing him to heal."
The trial continues.
