Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Court of Appeals heard arguments Monday on conflicting laws that may decide whether the estate of an Allen County woman can sue a Fort Wayne nursing home on grounds of negligence in her death.
Martha O’Neal, 68, was living in the Bethlehem Woods Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 4430 Elsdale Drive, where workers at the facility allegedly left her on a bedpan for at least six hours in September 2001.
According to court records, O’Neal developed serious pressure sores and was transferred to an area hospital the next day. She died a few months later, on Nov. 6, 2001.
Her estate filed a wrongful-death claim against Bethlehem Woods in October 2003.
The case was moved to Wells County, where a trial judge granted summary judgment to the nursing home.
The issue before the appellate court Monday was whether the estate must abide by the medical malpractice statute of limitations, which is two years from the occurrence of the alleged malpractice, or the wrongful death statute of limitations, which is two years from the date of death.
In this case, the estate met the limitation for wrongful death but filed a month late for medical malpractice.
Fort Wayne attorney Alan Verplanck argued on behalf of the O’Neal estate that they don’t want to bring a malpractice case, which requires filings and findings by the state Department of Insurance as well as expert testimony.
He doesn’t think the case is about medical service, saying, “there still must be a place for simple negligence, simple carelessness.”
Verplanck told the judges that his client is seeking modest damages for funeral, burial and medical expenses as well as loss of support for one dependent child.
But Bethlehem attorney Tina Bell argued that bedpan usage involves medical knowledge and judgment that a jury should hear about; noting a layperson would not understand what normal bedpan practices are.
But several of the judges on the three-judge panel seemed skeptical.
Judge Michael P. Barnes, of St. Joseph County, even asked whether you have to be Albert Einstein to figure out you shouldn’t sit on a bedpan for six hours.
Bell also argued that delaying filing of a suit until after death could cause malpractice cases to linger on for decades.
“There needs to be a bright-line rule,” she said.
The appellate court took the case under advisement and will rule in the coming months.
nkelly@jg.net
