SDF attorney, Joseph Reese obtained a defense award following a three day arbitration of a nursing home malpractice case. One month after undergoing arterial bypass surgery in his leg, the plaintiff was diagnosed with an infection of the implanted bypass graft. As a result of the infected graft, the plaintiff’s leg had to be amputated. The plaintiff alleged that his infection resulted from unsanitary conditions at the defendant nursing home, where he had been sent for rehabilitation, along with the nursing home’s failure to proper monitor, clean, and otherwise care for the surgical site. The nursing home maintained that the infection was caused by bacteria which had entered deep in the surgical site during the surgery and which, over the next month, slowly evolved and spread outward until it reached the level of the skin, ultimately causing the incision site to burst open. By this time, there was nothing that could be done to treat the infection and amputation was inevitable. The arbitrator found that the credible, substantial evidence supported the nursing home’s position and ruled that the nursing home was not responsible for the plaintiff’s injuries.
