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By MIKE BRASSFIELD
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 27, 2000
A Pinellas County jury decided Tuesday that a Kenneth City nursing home had neglected an Alzheimer's patient who eventually died and that the home's parent company should pay his family nearly $3-million in compensation.
Today, jurors will consider how much in punitive damages the corporation should pay.
The verdict came on the 12th day of a civil trial. A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed by the family of Charles McCorkle Jr., who died after staying at the Colonial Care Center, 6300 46th Ave. N.
McCorkle's aunt sued the nursing home giant Extendicare Inc., which owns Colonial Care and nearly 300 other retirement homes and assisted living facilities in the United States and Canada.
The lawsuit alleged that McCorkle's health went into a downward spiral at Colonial Care because he became malnourished and dehydrated and suffered a bedsore that opened to the bone.
But Extendicare said McCorkle was in extremely poor health when he arrived at the home and that the best care available could not have helped him.
McCorkle, a retired long-distance truck driver, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's-related dementia at age 65. He was staying in an ALF when he fell and suffered a head injury. After being released from a hospital, he went to Colonial Care in June 1997. He was still 65.
McCorkle's aunt, Mary Weldon, who helped pay for his care, moved him out of the home in May 1998. He died in August 1998.
Weldon's lawyer, Bennie Lazzara, told jurors that McCorkle rapidly lost weight at Colonial Care, that his bedsore became gangrenous and that he was left to lie in his own waste.
Extendicare's attorney, Dale R. Sisco, told jurors that Colonial Care had tried to improve McCorkle's health so he could return to an ALF, but the decline in his health was irreversible.
"Some things worked," Sisco said. "Some things didn't."
Sisco said the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner had ruled that McCorkle died of Alzheimer's disease and that the nursing home did nothing to contribute to his death.
The six jurors decided that the home had neglected McCorkle and that Extendicare should pay his aunt about $2,940,000 in compensatory damages.
"Mary Weldon was overjoyed by the verdict," Lazzara said afterward. "She felt it gave value to the life of her nephew who suffered through this."
Jurors also decided the company should pay punitive damages in the case. Today they will consider how much.
- Staff writer Jounice L. Nealy contributed to this report.