Nursing home settles with family over woman’s death

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

A Green Valley nursing home will pay $2 million to a woman whose mother died as the result of an untreated bedsore.

Attorney Randy Mainor said Mary Agnes Rosolowski, 74, developed a bad bedsore in December 1993 while a patient at the Delmar Gardens of Green Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She died four months later.

"There is no record anywhere that suggested she saw a doctor during that time period," Mainor said. "She was ignored."

Her daughter, Cynthia Rosolowski, wasn't told about the bedsore until just three days before her mother died, Mainor said.

Mainor said if the case had gone to trial, there would have been testimony that the 184-bed facility was understaffed. Mary Agnes Rosolowski was often found lying in her own feces and urine, he said.

"It was a classic case of mistreatment in a nursing home setting," Mainor said.

According to a statement released by Delmar Gardens attorney James Rosenberger, the decision to settle was a financial one based on jury verdicts elsewhere in the country.

The family-owned and -operated business has provided 35 years of "service and excellence," the statement reads.

"Delmar Gardens disputes the claims made by the Rosolowski family both factually and medically and was prepared to go to trial and defend the treatment afforded to Mrs. Rosolowski," it reads.

The settlement "specifically stated that the offer was not an admission of any liability in this matter," Rosenberger wrote.

Mainor said Cynthia Rosolowski was offered $200,000 a year ago, but declined it.

"This is a national issue that needs to be looked into," Mainor said. "They give the impression that these places are really, really nice, and judging from their furnishings they are, but what goes on behind closed doors can be scary."