Platte County Jury Awards $3.02 Million to Estate of Nursing Home Resident Who Lost Both Legs

A Platte County, Missouri jury ordered the owner and operator of two Kansas City nursing homes to pay $3.02 million to the estate of John Novogradac, a former resident who lost both legs after pressure sores went untreated. The verdict, reported in early November 2007, was $500,000 in compensatory damages plus $2,522,500 in punitive damages.

Novogradac was 73 when he entered Barry Manor in February 2001. He had suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side and unable to swallow normally, and he depended on a feeding tube. A wound started on his left heel and spread across the foot. It was not adequately monitored or treated, became infected with dead and gangrenous tissue, and his left leg was amputated above the knee in January 2003.

His family then moved him to White Oak Manor, another home run by the same operator. He arrived with a small ulcer on his right heel that had begun at Barry Manor. At White Oak it grew, and new sores developed on his buttocks, tailbone, hip and shoulder. The heel ulcer became infected and gangrenous, and the second leg was amputated in April 2003, a day after emergency room staff at Saint Luke's Hospital called the state elder abuse hotline about his condition.

The estate, through personal representative Denise Schmelzle, sued the operator, Sharo Shirshekan of Farmington; his management company, Health Care Management; and the two homes, Barry Manor LLC and White Oak Manor LLC. Thomas P. Cartmell and Derek H. Potts represented the estate. The case, No. 03CV84449, was tried before Judge Daniel M. Czamanske.

The jury found that the homes did not provide adequate staffing, did not turn and reposition Novogradac to prevent the sores, did not properly treat his wounds, and that no one monitored his condition or alerted a physician when it worsened. Under Missouri's bifurcated procedure, the jury first decided liability and compensatory damages, then heard evidence about the defendants' finances before setting punitive damages against Shirshekan and his management company. The compensatory award covered Novogradac's suffering before his death.

Cartmell told the Lawrence Journal-World that the jury seemed to feel the operator was not staffing his facilities appropriately and wanted to send a message that he needed enough staff to meet patients' needs.

The defendants appealed on multiple grounds. On July 28, 2009, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed the judgment (No. WD 69358), reported at 295 S.W.3d 528. The court denied rehearing that September, the Missouri Supreme Court denied transfer that November, and the full award stood.