A Harris County jury last week awarded a $7.1 million verdict to a nursing home assistant who was injured in 2016 while putting a bariatric patient into a wheelchair.
The multimillion-dollar verdict accounts for the past and future medical expenses, pain, mental anguish and physical impairment endured by plaintiff Nicole Tarpley, and represents more than 50 times the pretrial offer, according to Tarpley’s lawyers at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner.
The defendant is Red Bluff LLC, which owns the Courtyards of Pasadena nursing home facility that Tarpley worked at. Red Bluff’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Tarpley’s lawyers, Tarpley was injured in May 2016 after she was improperly trained on the protocol for transferring bariatric patients who weigh more than 300 or 400 pounds. Tarpley sustained injuries while transferring a patient from bed to wheelchair after the wheelchair’s brakes failed and the two fell to the ground.
The jury heard evidence that the nursing home failed to train nursing assistants on the specific transfer protocol and failed to adequately inspect and maintain their wheelchairs.
“We are extremely grateful that the Harris County jurors saw the righteousness of the case and ensured that justice was delivered to Mrs. Tarpley after the more than five years it was denied to her by the nursing home,” said Tarpley’s lead lawyer, Abraham Watkins partner Christopher Mahfouz. “The case was contested from the start with the nursing home refusing to accept any responsibility and blaming Mrs. Tarpley completely for the fall.
“We believe the verdict will put nursing home companies on notice that they cannot put their employees and patients in a position to fail,” he added. “If they forget the sacred trust they owe to their patients, then this verdict hitting their pocketbook may help them remember.”
Abraham Watkins associate Taylor Price and attorney Ramsey Al-Azem also played roles in the trial.
Red Bluff was represented by Dallas attorneys Brett Stecklein and Katie Harrison of Mullin Hoard & Brown.