May 23, 2006

Woman Wins $1.27 Million From Nursing Home After Losing Infested Foot

WEST PALM BEACH, FL--A 72-year-old woman has been awarded $1.27 million after suing a nursing home for failing to care for her foot to the point that her leg had to be amputated.

A Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury ruled on May 10 that Renova Health Center was negligent in its treatment for Mary Stewart.

According to the Associated Press, Stewart filed her lawsuit last year claiming that staff at the nursing home did not properly tend to her left foot after it was operated on in October 2004. She told the court that instead of cleaning the wound, facility staff simply put new bandages over the soiled ones.

When a doctor later removed the bandages to look at her foot, he found hundreds of live maggots jumping out of Stewart's body, she said.

Attorneys for Renova reportedly argued that the staff did provide an adequate level of care and that there was a larger than normal population of flies at the time from the hurricane season.

Stewart now lives in her own home, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

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Posted on May 23, 2006