• 07
  • October
    2010

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the case of a nursing home resident who suffocated to death while the resident nurse on duty was "too busy" to help her. The incident occurred in June of 2008. The patient in question had been admitted to the Senior Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Port Arthur, Texas for complications due to pneumonia and respiratory failure.

A tracheotomy tube was used to provide breathing assistance to the woman. At some point after this had been done, a nurse on the staff observed the patient struggling to breathe and found that her tube needed to be suctioned out.

However, after being alerted, the center's resident nurse supposedly claimed that she was "too busy" to help clear the woman's tracheotomy tube.

Moments later, the patient became unresponsive and, after arriving at the Southeast Texas Medical Center, was found to be suffering from cardiac arrest. Doctors were able to bring the woman back, but lack of oxygen during those crucial moments left her brain damaged and her body in need of constant life support.

In late July, her family made the heart wrenching decision to remove support.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on September 29 in District Court by the woman's daughter, who is also asking to be compensated for "mental anguish." The only party named in the suit, according to The Southeast Texas Record is Port Arthur's Senior Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center.

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