HCR ManorCare settle neglect suit for $1M.

HCR ManorCare agreed to pay $1 million to settle a wrongful death suit arising from the death of Russell Lee, 80, a former resident of the Citrus Heights nursing home in California.

Lee was admitted to the facility in April 1996 after undergoing surgery for water on the brain. He died a little more than two months later as a result of neglect and abuse, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by his family.

Lesley Ann Clement, the attorney for Lee's survivors, says the facility was "grossly understaffed for the acuity level--89 percent of the residents were high-acuity, according to the company's own records."

On Lee' first night, he was one of 107 patients in a facility with only two licensed nurses and three CNAs, Clement says. Lee was screaming out at night, and the nurses' response, for the next 22 days, was "to shoot him full of Haldol and Ativan. During this time period he lost half a pound a day.

"He was so lethargic from the effects of the psychotropic drugs," continues Clement, "that he couldn't participate in the rehab therapy his surgeon had recommended. Yet they continued to bill for therapy he didn't participate in and for health shakes he never got."

Clement says that on the 32nd day of Lee's stay he complained to his wife that his foot hurt. "She took off his sock and half of his heel fell off in the sock-a gangrenous stage four pressure sore. Amputation was the only option. Our experts said his death was result of all these things."

HCR ManorCare settled for such a substantial amount because, says Clement, they were facing possible punitive damages and Clement had emphasized to the jury that the company had $2.7 billion in assets.

John Petrullo, the attorney who represented the nursing home, declined comment.