The daughter of a woman who died after a serious fall at Colonial Manor Senior Living in Williamsburg has been awarded $300,000 in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Following expert testimony from a neurological surgeon and a registered nurse, a judge ruled Colonial Manor was negligent in caring for 87-year-old Alice Allen. The nursing home resident died about two weeks after she fell from a wheelchair and hit her head on the floor in August 2012.
The judge awarded Allen’s daughter, Thelma Barbour, $300,000 in damages on May 1 in the Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court, Barbour’s attorney Michael Heikes said Monday.
The case was originally filed against three defendants – Colonial Manor, Norfolk physician Paul Augustine and the Visiting Physicians Association – but Barbour decided to drop the case against Augustine and the VPA, going to trial May 1 against only the nursing home.
Heikes said Monday that Barbour and her attorneys have not decided whether they will bring the case back against Augustine and the VPA.
According to documents, Allen was alone in her room at Colonial Manor on Pocahontas Trail on Aug. 12, 2012 when she fell from her wheelchair, hitting her head on the floor, documents state.
An employee of Colonial Manor testified in court in 2014 that she heard distressed sounds from Allen’s room and found her on the floor with her head bleeding and wheelchair on top of her. Documents with testimony state a staff member placed an adhesive bandage on Allen’s head and did not take her to the hospital until the next day.
Allen died August 23 after suffering complications from a subdural hematoma, a medical condition typically caused by a head injury strong enough to burst blood vessels, documents state. Online obituaries say she was 87 years old.
Although the doctor and registered nurse who testified for the May 1 trial did not treat Allen while she was alive, both were certified as experts to give their opinions on Allen’s care and cause of death.
Doctor of Neurological Surgery James Vascik said Allen’s cause of death was a head injury resulting from her fall.
“[The scalp laceration] was still bleeding 24 hours after the fall,” Vascik said, according to a transcript of his testimony. “That kind of information tells me that the fall was fairly significant. It is not like somebody just fell off on a pillow or on a floor and got back up and went about their business.”
Registered nurse Varonica Price said Allen was also on a blood thinner that was not properly monitored, resulting in a heightened risk for bleeding in the head of brain following an injury.
“Any prudent nurse with an unwitnessed fall with a possible head injury on [a blood thinner] would be sent to the emergency room immediately following the fall,” Price said. “Time is of the essence.”
Following the fall on Aug. 12, the nursing home failed to send Allen to the emergency room in a timely manner, Price said.
Price also said she did not believe Colonial Manor met the assisted living standards of care for Alice Allen and failed to properly assess Allen for her fall risk.
Nursing notes presented in court show Allen fell nine times between November 2011 and August 2012 while at Colonial Manor. Seven falls occurred in the last four months of her life.
While Price admitted it is not possible to eliminate all risk of falls, she said an effective fall risk program can reduce the risk of falls and injury.
“She was admitted from another assisted living who admitted that they were not able to properly manage her falls,” Price said. “So [Colonial Manor] did agree to accept her as a resident there and made a promise to her and her family to keep her safe.”
Pedro Becerra, the owner and director of Colonial Manor, was set to represent the senior living center in court, court documents state. A phone message left for him at Colonial Manor was not immediately returned Tuesday.
WYDaily archives were used in this story.
Fearing may be reached at sarah.f@localvoicemedia.com.
