Suing A Nursing Home Could Get Easier Under Proposed Federal Rules
As Dean Cole’s dementia worsened, he began wandering at night. He’d even forgotten how to drink water. His wife, Virginia, could no longer manage him at home. So after much agonizing, his family checked him into a Minnesota nursing home.
“Within a little over two weeks he’d lost 20 pounds and went into a coma,” says Mark Kosieradzki, who was the Cole family’s attorney. Dean Cole was rushed to the hospital, says Kosieradzki, “and what was discovered was that he’d become totally dehydrated. They did get his fluid level up, but he was never, ever able to recover from it and died within the month.”
Kosieradzki says that Virginia Cole had signed a stack of papers when her husband was admitted to the nursing home. As is often the case, one of the forms was a binding agreement to go to arbitration if she ever had a claim against the facility. So instead of taking the nursing home to court, her claim for wrongful death was heard by three private arbitrators. They charge for their services.
“The arbitration bill for the judges was $60,750. That was split in half between the two parties,” says Kosieradzki.
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