Suit claims nursing home delay may have cost man his life

BECKLEY – The estate of a Surveyor man has sued the nursing home, alleging a delay in returning him to the emergency room was the cause of his death.

Tina Sue Wykle, as administrator of the estate of Robert Denvil Wriston, filed a lawsuit in Raleigh Circuit Court against Hilltop Health Care Center Inc., Genesis Healthcare Corp., Scott Keffer Inc. and Tara Jackson, citing negligence and violation of the Nursing Home Act.

According to the complaint, on April 11, 2014, Wriston was admitted to the Hilltop Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center nursing home in Hilltop, with orders he was to return to the hospital emergency room at the first evidence of abdominal pain. The suit says Wriston turned down meals and regularly complained of abdominal pain for two days before he was returned to the hospital emergency room.

As a result of this delay, suit says, he suffered a perforated bowel, severe peritonitis and severe sepsis that ultimately led to his death.

Wykle seeks: compensation for medical and funeral expenses; damages for pain and suffering and economic loss; court costs and attorney fees. She is represented by attorneys Jonathan R. Mani and Bernard E. Layne III of Mani, Ellis and Layne in Charleston.

Raleigh Circuit Court case number: 15-C-360-H