We all know that the Life Care Centers of America nursing home in Kirkland, Washington was the location of the first major SNF outbreak of COVID at the beginning of the pandemic. Well, the families of two residents who died sued the facility, the management company and some employees for negligence.
As I have stated too many times, this early in the pandemic no one really knew what was going on, no one understood the severity, and no one knew what to do with the early cases, if they even had test kits, and to be held liable for deaths in those early weeks did not seem to make sense.
While the jury found that the company was not at fault for the deaths of the two women, the jury found that in one of the deaths the company was negligent, but did not agree that the negligence was the proximate cause of her death, which is necessary for a finding of liability (and money damages). In the other death the jury ruled that the family did not prove negligence. The jury deliberated for four hours.
The plaintiffs argued that the company (and facility) deviated from the appropriate standard of care. Really, what exactly was the standard of care for COVID infections back in February 2020? There wasn’t one. And we were still in the period of debating the efficacy of masks. Or at least Dr. Fauci was.
In the case of one of the deaths, Life Care Centers argued that the resident died of kidney failure after refusing to eat and drink for 10 days. Apparently, she had dementia and was taken to the hospital, before she tested positive for COVID, because she was not complying with isolation protocols and masking.
This jury decision should bode well for a similar lawsuit against Silverado, but one with some significant differences. While there may have been real negligence in some of the deaths in nursing homes in the first year of the pandemic, in the first three months not really. And, you can’t sue the government for its role.
