Man charges nursing home with wrongful death

CHARLESTON - A Kanawha County man is claiming that poor care in a nursing home led to his wife's death.

Edward Wilson states in a lawsuit filed March 1 in Kanawha Circuit Court that the Beverly Health Care Center was responsible for his wife Carol's deteriorating condition, ultimately resulting in her death on Jan. 27, 2004.

"During the course of her residency, Ms. Wilson suffered from multiple urinary tract infections due to poor hygiene and inadequate infection control practices," the complaint states. "Ms. Wilson was dependent on the staff or required extensive assistance to carry out toileting and personal hygiene needs."

The complaint adds that Wilson died from sepsis, a condition caused by a major infection.

Edward Wilson lists Beverly Enterprises, doing business as Beverly Health Care Center, AEGIS Therapies, Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services and Beverly Enterprises, West Virginia Inc., as defendants.

His wife was admitted to Beverly Health Care Center on Dec. 26, 2002, and he says much of his wife's time there was spent with urinary tract infections. She also developed irritations on her skin, he says, "due to inadequate hygiene or urine and/or stool being allowed to remain on the skin."

"Beverly Health Care Center failed to consult a physician when Ms. Wilson was showing signs and symptoms of sepsis, which ultimately caused her death," the suit states.

The complaint says that her temperature spiked two days before her death, and the nursing staff administered only Tylenol. It adds that the staff failed to evaluate the effectiveness of the medication and did not re-take her temperature or provide any other clinical nursing information on the patient's condition for 30 hours.

Edward Wilson also says that the staff at Beverly failed to notify physicians of lab results received three weeks earlier which showed elevated ammonia levels.

He charges the defendants with statutory violations, negligence and wrongful death. He seeks punitive damages.

Wilson is represented by Erin L. Wilson. Judge Irene Berger has been assigned the case.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 06-C-399