The family of an 86-year-old local senior care facility resident received a $1.75 million confidential settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged neglectful care at a Northern Michigan senior care facility over the course of several months in 2010 and 2011 when staff at the facility failed to properly care for and protect the resident.

 According to the lawsuit, the woman lived in the senior care facility for several months during which time an employee of the facility stole her prescription medications which were necessary for pain management. The woman also fell over a dozen times at the facility until she was no longer able to get around without a wheelchair. The lawsuit alleged that this hastened the woman’s death. The resident’s attorneys claimed that the woman died in agony due to the facility’s gross negligence and dereliction of duty on the part of the facility’s staff. The senior care facility denied any negligence or negligent care. The settlement was reached just two weeks before a jury trial was scheduled to begin.

For more information, contact Dingeman, Dancer & Christopherson, 100 Park Street, Traverse City, MI, tel. 231.929.0500, or visit www.ddc-law.com.