› $580,975,000 verdict in personal injury case
The elderly man at a Nova Scotia nursing home had fallen to the floor in his bathroom during the overnight hours of May 5-6. No one knows how long he had been lying there, but the light from the bathroom prompted his roommate to ring the call bell to have staff turn off the light.
The black box warning on the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal says it all: “Increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis.” But Bruce Bowman’s children claim they were never told by the nursing home staff that cared for their father that the medication he was being given could kill him.
Nurse Haydee Parungano was an independent contractor who traveled Southern California to provide nursing services to Medicare patients. Her records show she worked every day between April 1, 2002, and August 31, 2003, including all weekends and holidays, averaging 20 visits per day.
During this time span, there were 60 days that Parungano claimed to have seen more than 32 patients – a feat that, at 45 minutes per patient, would take more than 24 hours to accomplish.
Last year, Parungano was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for her role in a health care fraud scheme that ultimately cost Medicare more than $3 million.
