In your recent editorial “Nursing homes: Easy targets” (MBJ, June 29-July5), your support for severely limiting damage awards appears to be inconsistent with some of your own observations.

For example, you endorse “energetic prosecution” of the types of case my firm handles, yet you specifically point to us as part of the problem. Similarly, you seem to support our work pursuing the most egregious cases but then suggest that a bill limiting damages to less than the cost of bringing forth such a case is a good idea.

You also point to a recent verdict from a case brought by my firm and call the $12 million verdict “breathtaking” while insinuating that what happened to our client was part of the “conclusion of life that all of us will eventually taste.”

For God’s sake, let’s hope not.

As you specifically mention the Estelle Shaw case as an example of an “opportunistic” lawsuit, let me share some of the facts about her death.

Yes, “she fell from her bed”. She fell because, despite repeated warnings, the staff did not properly adjust the restraints that were supposed to protect her. And yes, “she broke her hip and died two weeks later,” but you fail to mention that she was then left to lie in her feces and urine for extended periods of time while necessary pain management was virtually ignored.

Additionally, there were too many times when nobody was available to feed her, turn her, clean her or even give her enough water to drink. The home was chronically short of staff, presumably so the company could maximize profits.

As if that wasn’t enough, charts were fraudulently altered to show care that was never delivered. (In one instance, they made detailed notes about her care long after she had died.) As a result, Estelle Shaw and residents like her were unnecessarily treated like animals. They were left to lie in their own waste because the owners put their profits ahead of the safety of those they were supposed to protect.

Sadly, these same operators could not be put in jail for these actions due to laws that shield corporate decision-makers from their own decisions. The penalty of higher insurance rates hardly seems an adequate punishment for such reckless and indifferent behavior, yet you persist in calling for limits to keep their insurance rates low.

The opening line of your essay begins, “Old people get sick. They fall down and they die…” How true. Let’s not however provide an incentive to speed the process along or make the suffering worse than it has to be. And let us applaud the Arkansas juries who respect the value of human life regardless of someone’s age.

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