Family wins compensation after care home choking death
MELBOURNE: There is a growing trend to seek damages from residential care operators for injury or death.
The family of an 80-year-old man who choked to death at a nursing home has been ruled to receive more than 140,000 yuan (US$19,924) in compensation from the latter for improper care, the Pudong New Area People’s Court said on Monday.
An appeal by the nursing home was rejected by the court.
According to the Pudong court, the deceased man, surnamed Chen, suffered from senile dementia and was sent to a nursing home in Pudong on April 29, 2017. The nursing home promised to offer comprehensive care to Chen, including feeding, helping him drink and cutting or stirring his food.
However, on the morning of June 29, after Chen got his breakfast and grabbed a bun to eat at 6:15am, a nursing worker noticed that he was chocked. The worker got some water for Chen, while other staff began patting him on the back.
About 20 minutes later, the nursing home called the emergency treatment center in Pudong and medics came at 7am, by which time Chen was found already dead.
Chen’s grandson called police at 9:54am and police officers started an investigation at the nursing home at 10:20am.
The nursing home owner, surnamed Huang, admitted that blame was deserved for failing to fulfill their responsibility to take care of Chen.
On September 4 last year, Chen’s family took the nursing home to court, demanding a compensation of 226,000 yuan. The family members said the nursing home didn’t cut Chen’s food as promised and didn’t have any professional medical workers, which meant that emergency treatment couldn’t be given to Chen in time to save his life.
But the nursing home refused to compensate the family. It argued that the death certificate shows he died from cerebral infarction and believed his death was unrelated to their service. Chen’s medical history also showed Chen had cerebral infarction, the home said.
The court said a statement from the Pudong emergency treatment center explained the cause of death on the medical certificate was based on estimation. Since the nursing home expressed willingness to be responsible for Chen’s death, there was no dissection or examination of Chen’s body. In this case, there are not enough evidences to show Chen died from cerebral infarction.
Moreover, the nursing worker’s testimony and Huang’s words to police both showed that the nursing home should bear responsibility for Chen’s death. Other evidence also showed likelihood that improper care led to Chen’s death.
The court confirmed that over 186,000 yuan compensation is reasonable. It ordered the nursing home to pay 70 percent of the total amount, which is 130,000 yuan, while another 40,000 yuan should be given for the family’s mental suffering and lawyer fees. Since the nursing home had already given the family 30,000 yuan, it should pay them an additional 140,000 yuan.
