The CEO of a California senior living operator said the company will “work through this” after a jury awarded the family of a former resident $42.5 million in punitive and compensatory damages for care that the plaintiffs’ attorneys said led to her death.
Attorneys Edward P. Dudensing, Jay P. Renneisen and Thomas G.C. McLaughlin said they believe the verdict is the largest ever awarded against an assisted living operator in the United States and that the amount of punitive damages, $35 million, represents more than 10% of nonprofit operator Eskaton’s net worth.
Barbara Lovenstein, who had dementia, moved into Eskaton FountainWood Lodge, an assisted living and memory care community in Orangevale, CA, in February 2012, according to the lawsuit Dudensing filed in 2012. The 77-year-old resident also had an epilepsy diagnosis and had a prescription for the sedative lorazepam (Ativan) that was to be given only when she had “seizure-like activity,” the complaint said.
FountainWood staff members, however, began administering lorazepam to Lovenstein daily to address her agitation, even after her primary care physician denied their request for a prescription for routine dosage, the attorneys said.
Lovenstein subsequently choked and was taken to a hospital emergency department, where it was determined that she had aspiration pneumonia, according to the complaint. She was discharged March 28, 2012, and died April 11, 2012.
The state Department of Social Services, after a 2012 investigation, concluded: “Primary care physician medication orders and communication were not followed.” The state also found that “resident medication [was] not given as prescribed.”
“The jury was presented with evidence that Eskaton engaged in this practice not just with Ms. Lovenstein but throughout the memory care unit of its facility because it was dangerously understaffed,” the plaintiffs’ law firm said in a press release. “Eskaton corporate officers were aware of the understaffing, lack of supervision and numerous other systemic failures at the facility but woefully failed to do anything about it.”
Eskaton CEO Todd Murch had not responded to McKnight’s Senior Livingby the publication deadline but told the Sacramento Bee, “We do accept responsibility for our mistakes, and we will need to work through this.” The 50-year-old company “never had an experience like this,” he told the media outlet.
Although describing the verdict as “very discouraging and upsetting,” Murch said the company was proud of its overall reputation, employees and services.
“Eskaton will survive and continue to provide services for a long time to come in the Sacramento area,” he told the media outlet.
