Blog Post

$1.5 Million Awarded Against Assisted Living Facility


February 01, 2008
Topic: Nursing Home Abuse

Maybe it's the extreme vulnerability of Audrey McGhee's condition. Maybe it is the horrific nature of the injuries received. Whatever the reason, the lawsuit against the assisted living home operator, Residential CRF Inc. and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, merits special shock and sympathy to the victim.

The shock certainly isn't because the assisted living facility, which was entrusted with Audrey McGhee's day-to-day needs, treated him so badly; we've seen too many nursing-home-turned-torture-chamber scandals to be shocked again.

42-year-old Audrey McGhee had been a patient of the now defunct New Castle State Development Center since 1998. He suffered severe first and second degree burns to his leg when he was placed in a tub of scalding water.

Attorneys for the operator argued that McGhee must have turned on the faucet on his own. Mr. McGhee is a cerebral palsy patient and is blind, mute and deaf making it logically impossible for him to have turned on the faucet himself. Further he is said to have the mental faculties of a baby, making it further unexplainable that he could have burned himself in an accident. The attorneys for the Residential CRF argued valiantly, but the jury wasn't impressed. Both residential CRF and the state must pay a total of $1.5 million in damages to Mr. McGhee's estate.

Attorneys for Mr. McGhee's estate had argued for a monetary settlement that would cover personal care for the 42-year-old man for the rest of his lifetime, calculated at 30 years.

The attorney for Residential CRF was adamant that this was not a "punishable offense." If scalding a helpless and blind person with not enough mental development to be able to speak or hear even if he could, is not a "punishable offense" one dreads to think what kind of care they had been offering other patients in their home. It certainly does sound as if they think this incident wasn't something to make a big fuss about.

For now, Audrey McGhee is safely ensconced at another assisted living facility in Anderson, Indiana.

If you have a loved-one who has suffered injuries at an assisted living home, you need the help of an aggressive California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.


The California personal injury attorneys at The Reeves Law Group represent victims of accidents, injuries and wrongful death throughout California from our offices in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Ventura County, Fresno County, Kern County, Sacramento County, San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Antelope Valley, Torrance, Glendale, Bakersfield, Santa Ana, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Ontario, and Victorville.