Insets: Brenda Roberts (Michael Hill Trial Law). Background: The Coldspring Transitional Care Center in Campbell County, Ky., where staff allegedly failed to follow orders from Brenda Roberts' orthopedic surgeon for the rehabilitation of her ankle fracture, leading to an amputated leg (Google Maps).
A Kentucky woman admitted into a nursing home for "short-term" rehabilitation following an ankle fracture ended up having to get her left leg amputated below the knee after staffers "failed to follow the orders" of her orthopedic surgeon, a lawsuit says.
Staff at the Coldspring Transitional Care Center in Campbell County allegedly failed to remove Brenda Roberts' "immobilizing ankle boot" while the 75-year-old Williamstown resident was laying in bed and chairs during her recovery, which resulted in her left heel resting against "the hard plastic surfaces" of the boot, according to her legal complaint.
This ultimately caused "exposure of the skin over heel" and "excessive pressure," leading to a stage 4 ulcer and "accelerated deterioration of her health," the complaint alleges. Roberts' lawyer, Matt Mooney, says she had to have the lower half of her leg cut off as a result.
"No one expects a routine rehabilitation stay to end in a catastrophic injury and an amputation," Mooney told Law&Crime. "Too often, what we see instead is preventable harm caused by understaffing and inadequate care."
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Mooney says that during Roberts' time at Coldspring, the septuagenarian was forced to watch as "the full thickness of skin and tissue over her heel bone" died off due to compression of the tissues from "excessive pressure cutting off blood flow to the area," per the complaint. This was because she was forced to continue wearing her medical boot, according to Mooney.
"Defendants' failure to remove the immobilizing ankle boot from her left foot while Brenda Roberts was laying in bed and/or seated in a chair was not just a failure to follow her doctor's orders but also a failure to follow ordinary care and minimum safety practices expected of the defendants," the complaint charges. "[Roberts] suffered unnecessary loss of personal dignity, extreme pain and suffering, degradation, mental anguish, disability, disfigurement, all of which were caused by the wrongful conduct of defendants."
Mooney tells Law&Crime that families are supposed to be able to "trust short-term rehab facilities to help their loved ones recover and go home," not get worse.
"Defendants owed a duty to Brenda Roberts to have in place procedures and protocols to properly care for residents," the complaint concludes.
"I felt neglected there," Roberts told local ABC affiliate WCPO. "I didn't have anyone really coming to look at my foot."
Coldspring did not respond to Law&Crime's requests for comment Sunday.
