Patient lift accidents: Inadequate training or negligence?

One consequence of an aging population is the increase of patients in healthcare facilities from hospitals to nursing homes to assisted living facilities. Another consequence is the increase in the number of healthcare professionals who are lifting patients, often without adequate help in lifting or without proper training in using assistive devices like a Hoyer lift, the brand most commonly used in healthcare facilities.

We’ve all heard anecdotes about nursing assistants or nurses injuring patients while attempting to transfer them from a wheelchair into bed or vice versa with the lift. So, what kinds of injuries have arisen in these cases, and what are the liability claims? Are the injuries the result of negligence on the part of the healthcare facility, or could they be caused by inadequate staffing or training, as injured patients often claim?

PropertyCasualty360 asked the expert researchers at our sister publication, VerdictSearch, to look into the situation and give us an idea of the kinds of injuries in these cases, the amounts of the settlements or jury verdicts, and the basis for liability. They did a custom search for us, as they do for many clients. Note that we only asked about injuries caused during a transfer from a bed to a wheelchair and the instances in which such a device was used improperly by staff.

Here is an overview of 9 of those cases.

1. Did the patient transfer cause paralysis?

A 72-year-old man was a patient at a hospital where he was recovering from emergency cervical spinal surgery that was performed three days earlier. The nurses were attempting to move him from a heavy reclining chair to his bed and were using a Hoyer lift with a sling. In the process, he began to slide out of the sling, with his legs sliding down toward the floor. According to the patient, the nurses pushed the lift toward the back of the chair, which caused his head to hit the back of the chair with enough force to dislodge the surgical screws in his spine.

The hospital claimed that the surgeon failed to stabilize the patient’s cervical spine, which caused partial paralysis, not the nurse’s actions in transferring the patient.

Verdict: $8,134,739

2. Were injuries from the fall the cause of death?

A 91-year-old resident of a nursing home was dropped on her head during a transfer by a certified nursing assistant without the assistance of a second staff member. The patient died nine days later due to blunt force head injuries.

The woman had been admitted to the nursing center for custodial skilled nursing care and rehabilitation due to her history of strokes and congestive heart failure. She was wheelchair-bound and required increased assistance with mobility. The patient was identified as a fall risk upon her admission to the nursing center, and the center documented the need for the staff to perform two-person lifts in the patient’s plan of care.

The family alleged that the defendants recklessly neglected the patient and failed to properly train its staff members on the proper use of Hoyer lifts, noting that the patient had multiple falls before the fatal one.

The defendants denied liability and contended that their care of the patient was within the standard of care for their facility and that they did not cause her injuries or death.

Settlement: $800,000

3. Did a fractured knee lead to death?

A resident of a nursing home fractured her right knee during a transfer from her bed to a wheelchair. She was transferred to a hospital, where she dies two months later. The patient’s children sued the nursing home, alleging that the facility was negligent in failing to use more than one person to transfer the patient. This negligence caused the woman’s medical condition to deteriorate and eventually led to her death.

A jury unanimously agreed that the nursing home was negligent and caused the patient’s leg injury. But only 10 jurors agreed that the negligence caused the woman’s death.

Verdict: $497,259

4. Was the patient’s underlying condition worse after the fall?

A woman with multiple sclerosis was a functional quadriplegic and a resident at a nursing home. As the employees were helping her to bed at the end of the day, she slipped out of the Hoyer lift and fell to the floor. As a result, she suffered multiple fractures of her leg.

She sued the nursing home, alleging that they were negligent in failing to take precautions to keep her from falling. The defendant admitted liability but contended that the patient was non-ambulatory before the accident and that her medical condition remained the same.

Verdict: $430,000

5. Was the fall a result of negligence or ‘elder abuse’?

A 76-year-old woman was a patient in a convalescent hospital. As she was being transferred from her bed to a wheelchair, the Hoyer Lift being used to move her failed. She fell to the ground and was severely injured. She sued the hospital, alleging that the healthcare facility was reckless in its maintenance of the lift and that this negligence rose to the level of elder abuse.

The hospital contended that its actions did not constitute elder abuse.

Settlement: $425,000

6. Did the eye injury cause the patient’s death?

A 93-year-old nursing home patient was a patient at a nursing home. While he was being transferred from his bed to a chair by one certified nursing assistant, the patient was hit in the face, and his eye was gouged by the metal safety hook on the machine. The man lost his eye and developed sepsis, which he died from 47 days later.

His estate sued the nursing home for negligence, and the defendant denied any liability for the man’s death.

Verdict: $400,000

7. Was the staff following procedures in transferring the patient?

A resident of an assisted living facility was being transferred by the staff from one bed to another when she fell off the lift and fractured her femur (thigh bone). She sued the facility, claiming that the inadequately trained staff failed to properly secure her to the lift’s transfer sling before transferring her to the new bed. One staff member admitted to never being trained on the lift, while a second said she was trained to use the lift in a negligent fashion.

Before the incident in which the woman was injured, the state licensing agency had cited the facility for failing to properly apply the transfer sling to its residents.

Settlement: $310,000

8. Was the patient correctly strapped into the lift?

A patient with multiple sclerosis was receiving home healthcare services. While moving the patient from her wheelchair to her bed with a Hoyer lift, an employee of the agency dropped her, resulting in a broken thigh bone.

The patient sued the healthcare company, claiming that the aide negligently failed to strap her into the lift, which the agency disputed.

Settlement: $225,000

9. Did fractured kneecaps lead to the patient’s death?

A 96-year-old woman was a resident of a nursing home. Due to arthritis in her legs, the patient had to be transferred from her bed to a wheelchair with a Hoyer lift. While being transferred by two certified nurse’s aides, the woman allegedly fell three or four feet from the lift to the floor. She fractured both kneecaps and sustained internal bleeding, among other injuries, and died three days later.

The nursing home claimed that the nurse’s aides gently lowered the patient to the floor in an attempt to prevent injury when her legs became caught as she slid out of the lift.

Settlement: $100,000

For more information or to request your own custom research project, visit VerdictSearch, call 1-800-445-6823 or email info@verdictsearch.com.