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Reviewed by an award-winning attorney at DALLI MARINO
John Dalli, Esq. is a founding member of Dalli & Marino, LLP, and has been litigating and trying complex personal injury and medical malpractice matters in New York City, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau County, Suffolk County and Westchester since 1996.
When families place a loved one in a nursing home for rehabilitation, they trust that the facility will provide the care required under State and Federal law to support recovery and protect the resident from preventable harm. Unfortunately, that trust is often broken at nursing homes in New York.
In a case tried before a jury just last week, attorneys John Dalli and Anthony M. Chionchio of Dalli & Marino, LLP secured a $5.5 million jury verdict on behalf of the estate of a 70-year-old woman who developed a preventable pressure injury at a Nassau County nursing home. The pressure injury became infected while she resided at the facility and ultimately proved fatal. The unanimous verdict held the nursing home accountable not only for violating the resident’s rights under the New York State Public Health Law but found them negligent and awarded both compensatory damages and damages for her conscious pain and suffering and death.
What Happened?
Our client, a 70-year-old woman, entered a nursing home for rehabilitation after bariatric surgery. Because she was morbidly obese and recovering from a major procedure, she depended on staff for most activities of daily living. Critically, her care plan required two staff members to turn and reposition her in bed, along with a toileting program to help prevent skin breakdown. These measures were supposed to be in place because the nursing home staff was aware she was at a heightened risk of developing pressure injuries.
Sadly, the nursing home failed to provide the care our client was entitled to receive. As a result, she developed an unstageable invasive sacral pressure injury during her stay, which continued to deteriorate and required seven surgical debridement procedures. Unfortunately, the infection progressed to osteomyelitis and ultimately sepsis. Just three months after entering the nursing home for rehabilitation, she passed away.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that our client had been a registered nurse before she retired in 2017. Prior to becoming a nursing home resident herself, she had dedicated her professional career to caring for others. She understood the importance of providing residents with attentive, compassionate care. When she needed that same care herself, the nursing home failed her.
How Our Attorneys Uncovered the Truth
Medical records often serve as some of the most important evidence in nursing home abuse and neglect cases. But when those records do not accurately reflect the care that was actually provided, uncovering the truth requires looking beyond the chart itself. That is exactly what John Dalli and Anthony M. Chionchio did in this case.
The nursing home’s electronic medical records appeared to show that staff had been providing the turning, repositioning, toileting, and skin assessments required by our client’s care plan. Had those records been accepted at face value, the facility could have argued that it had done everything it was supposed to do.
During discovery, however, our attorneys obtained the metadata behind the facility’s electronic medical records. Unlike the chart itself, the metadata revealed when entries were actually created and how care had been documented. That evidence told a different story. It showed that turning and repositioning were documented as completed before the care supposedly occurred and, in some instances, days after it allegedly took place. Rather than documenting care as it happened, staff were checking boxes indicating that required tasks had been completed when in fact they had not been.
The same pattern appeared in the facility’s skin assessments. Nurses repeatedly documented our client’s skin as “intact” even as she was developing the pressure injury that ultimately became infected, spread into the bone, and led to sepsis.
The metadata became one of the most compelling pieces of evidence presented at trial. It showed that the nursing home’s documentation did not accurately reflect the care our client actually received, while also supporting our attorneys’ evidence that the facility was understaffed and had violated the clinical record requirements of the New York State Public Health Law.
During cross-examination, John Dalli confronted the defense’s medical expert with those discrepancies. However, even when faced with the facility’s own electronic records, the expert refused to acknowledge the obvious problems.
The Result
After hearing the evidence, the jury found in favor of our client’s estate, awarding a total of $5.5 million:
- $3 million for violations of the resident’s rights under the New York State Public Health Law
- $1.5 million for conscious pain and suffering
- $1 million for her death
The jury returned its unanimous verdict after just 45 minutes of deliberation. The speed of the verdict reflected the strength of the evidence presented at trial. And for our client’s husband, who had spent months watching his wife suffer in the facility they entrusted to care for her, the verdict provided long-overdue accountability.
Dalli & Marino Helps Victims and Families Hold Nursing Homes Accountable
This case demonstrates that nursing home negligence is not always immediately obvious. Sometimes, a facility’s records appear to show that residents received appropriate care when, in reality, they did not. Without a thorough investigation, those failures may never come to light. This verdict is a reminder of why it is so important to look beyond the chart and hold nursing homes accountable when the evidence tells a different story.
Cases like this do not happen because the truth simply reveals itself; they require attorneys with decades of experience in nursing home litigation — attorneys who know how these facilities document care and how to recognize when something does not add up. That is the kind of experience and care Dalli & Marino brings to every case.
If you believe a loved one has suffered because of nursing home abuse or neglect, you may have legal options. Our nursing home negligence lawyers personally handle these cases from investigation through trial and have helped recover millions of dollars for clients across New York. Contact us to schedule a free consultation.
