Annie Mae Ollison had both legs amputated after contracting bed sores at the Homestead of Fair Oaks nursing facility. Her problems were the result of neglect by the facility's staff, a jury decided.
By David Kline
Editor
A Sacramento County jury has found a local nursing home guilty of neglect, and has awarded the 82-year-old victim $3 million for poor care that led to the amputation of both of her legs.
Attorneys for Annie Mae Ollison and the Eskaton-owned nursing home, the Homestead of Fair Oaks, said Ollison is likely to receive about half of what the jury awarded.
A state law puts a $250,000 cap on recoveries for medical malpractice -- significantly less than the $1.5 million awarded by the jury for that purpose -- and reductions will be made by a judge later this month to represent the present cash value of amounts intended to compensate for future losses. Ollison's attorney will be paid a percentage of the remainder.
Still, Ollison's daughter said she was happy with the outcome.
"Justice did prevail," Henrietta Wright said. "They've got to crack down on these nursing facilities. ... You trust people in these types of places, that they're going to do the right thing, but I think sometimes it's a money thing, ... it's just a dollar factor."
Ollison's supporters hailed the July 25 verdict as a groundbreaking event because it marks the first time in Sacramento County that a case involving elder abuse in a nursing home was decided by a jury, rather than being settled out of court.
"It took 20 years for this foundation to get a nursing home abuse case in front of a jury," said Carole Herman, whose Foundation Aiding the Elderly assisted in Ollison's case. "The people of this county will not tolerate nursing home abuse, and they spoke."
Wendy York, a Sacramento attorney who represented Ollison, agreed that the case "is an example to the industry as a whole that elder neglect constitutes abuse ... and jurors are willing to hold nursing homes accountable."
York said she has handled several similar cases -- about two a year since 1997 -- and all have been settled out of court, with the details and settlement amounts kept from the public as part of the agreement.
Ollison's case, too, could have been settled out of court had the two sides been able to reach an agreement. David Bills, a Sacramento attorney who represented Homestead and its owner, Eskaton Corp., said Ollison offered to settle for $3.5 million and would not entertain offers for less. Eskaton decided to take its chances in court instead.
Ollison, who has diabetes, encountered problems three years ago, when her foot was injured by a podiatrist who was removing a corn. The injury got worse, and led to the amputation of part of her foot.
To rehabilitate after surgery, Ollison went to the Homestead at Fair Oaks, expecting to be there three to six weeks before going back to her apartment in a local seniors-only community.
Instead, York said, her client was "basically abandoned" by Homestead's staff. Wright said she visited her mother often and found her medicated to the point where she didn't recognize friends and family.
"She was just lethargic all the time," Wright said. "She just couldn't respond to anything."
Wright said she complained to the staff, but got no results. Nor did she get a response when she complained to state regulators.
"But I didn't want to complain too harshly, because, you know, I didn't want them to take it out on my mom more than what they already had done," Wright said.
At one point, Ollison's condition was so bad that her daughter was calling funeral homes to make arrangements.
"She was over-medicated, not cared for, couldn't do her physical therapy, didn't get fed, got dehydrated and developed bed sores on her tail bone and feet," said Herman, who worked with York and Ollison's daughter to push state officials to investigate the case.
The bed sores -- preventable when patients are moved and cared for according to state guidelines -- escalated to the point where Ollison's leg had to be amputated. After that surgery, she returned to Homestead, where more bed sores led to the amputation of her other leg.
The state eventually fined Homestead $15,000, and in October 2000, Ollison and her family filed suit.
Bills said there is more to the case than meets the eye. He said Ollison had "very, very substantial medical problems," including near-blindness, blood clots and other complications from diabetes, when she arrived at Homestead. These conditions, not negligence, could have created the need for amputations, he indicated.
"Really, we had some good medical arguments going into this case," Bills said. "It's true, ultimately, that this jury did not accept those arguments, but there were good, strong medical arguments."
The attorney said Ollison is a "delightful woman," and he believes the jury's sympathy for her overshadowed his medical arguments.
"One of the problems you have in trying elder-abuse cases is that it's very difficult to get over the sympathy issue ... and I suspect many people have negative feelings about nursing homes in general, so it's very difficult to get over that," Bills said.
John Breaux, chief executive officer of Carmichael-based Eskaton, told The Associated Press that the company is considering an appeal.
"I was truly shocked and devastated when this came down," Breaux told AP. "Our quality assurance process is such that we believe we do give good care."
Eskaton operates 25 facilities in Northern California, serving approximately 2,400 people.
Ollison now lives at Pioneer House, where Wright said her mother receives "beautiful care" and is doing well.
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