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Woman will appeal jury award over nursing home death

Hospital Safety Connection, March 24, 2004

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A jury on March 17 awarded $136,000 to the daughter of a woman whose 82-year-old mother was stung hundreds of times by fire ants in her bed at Gulf Health Care Center in Galveston, TX, the Houston Chronicle reports.

The woman, Sandra Smothers Bartosh, had sought $2.5 million and plans to appeal the award.

Ambulance workers found ants crawling out of Jose de Alminana's diaper as they rushed her to the University of Texas Medical Branch on August 5, 2001. Bartosh said the nursing home failed to ensure that it was clear of ants after they were found in a neighboring room days earlier.

Bartosh alleged that the hundreds of ant stings contributed to her mother's death on August 26 that year. Alminana had severe emphysema and heart problems, and died under hospice care.

Defense attorney Michael Stewart argued that physicians documented that Alminana was not infected by the stings and did not complain of pain from them. In addition, nursing home managers treated the facility regularly for pests, he said.

After three hours of deliberation, the jury found that nursing home operators allowed "unreasonably dangerous" conditions to exist. Bartosh's attorney, Anthony Griffin, said he will appeal the decision on grounds that the judge ruled improperly that a physician could not testify as an expert.

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