Long Term Care Facility Prevails at Trial

HARTFORD, CT - (September 16, 2010) - RRD Partner John F. Costa successfully defended a long term care facility in a jury trial held in Hartford, Connecticut.

The plaintiff, an EMT, claimed that the defendant's nursing staff was negligent in failing to recommend that a resident be put into restraints. The resident, an elderly male diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, had become unmanageable at the nursing home despite an increase in his antipsychotic medication. Plaintiff and her fellow EMT's responded to a 911 call and requested permission to put the resident in restraints in connection with transporting him to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Defendant’s nurses, as patient advocates, recommended against restraining the resident. During the transport, the resident attacked the plaintiff and caused injury to her wrist resulting in surgery. Plaintiff failed to disclose a nursing expert but disclosed the plaintiff herself as an EMT expert.

At the outset of the trial, the court granted defendant's motion to preclude the introduction of any expert testimony from plaintiff. The plaintiff proceeded on a theory of ordinary negligence. During cross examination by Costa, the plaintiff conceded that although she disagreed with the recommendation of the nursing staff to not restrain the patient, the recommendation was a reasonable one.

On September 14, at the end of the first day of plaintiff's testimony and after three years of litigation, plaintiff withdrew her entire complaint.