Failure To Perform Home Health Visits Results in Stroke: $1.5 Million
Lawsuit claims nurse's home visit failures resulted in patient missing anticoagulation therapy, leading to a catastrophic stroke and preventable death
2026 Medical Malpractice Lawyer’s Report
By Krysia Syska, Attorney for the Plaintiff
Worcester Superior Court, Massachusetts
Case summary
This claim involved a home healthcare provider and its nursing staff who failed to provide ordered skilled nursing services and critical medication administration to an elderly woman with dementia, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hypertension, and a mechanical heart valve.
The decedent lived alone and, because of significant cognitive impairment, relied on twice-daily nursing visits for medication administration, monitoring, and assessment. Her physician had specifically ordered skilled nursing visits each morning and evening, including administration of anticoagulation medication prescribed to prevent blood clots and stroke.
The decedent had been receiving her medications appropriately and had maintained therapeutic anticoagulation levels for over a year. However, beginning on July 7, 2021, nursing personnel assigned to the patient documented that the patient had been hospitalized and suspended home visits. This was untrue, and, unfortunately, the supervisor never made any meaningful effort to verify this information, confirm any hospitalization, communicate with family members, or arrange alternative care — all steps required by the home health provider and staff if a visit was going to be missed. As a result, the patient went several days without receiving prescribed medications, including anticoagulants that were essential to preventing clot formation.
On July 11, 2021, the patient was found at home in a severely neglected condition and was transported to a hospital. Testing revealed critically low anticoagulation levels, placing her at high risk for stroke. Despite treatment, she suffered an acute ischemic stroke the following day, resulting in significant neurological deficits. She later died that evening.
Subsequent investigations determined that the patient had never been hospitalized during the relevant period and instead remained at home without the ordered nursing visits or administration of critical medications. The lawsuit alleged that these failures resulted in the patient missing several days of essential anticoagulation therapy, leading to a catastrophic stroke and her preventable death.
State regulators later cited the home healthcare provider for deficiencies related to its failure to provide ordered skilled nursing services and medication administration. The nurse assigned to provide the patient's twice-daily visits, but who allegedly failed to do so during the four-day period at issue, provided inconsistent accounts of the events to multiple investigators.
The case settled for $1.5 million during discovery, prior to the nurse's deposition.
Attorneys for the plaintiff: Andrew C. Meyer, Jr. and Krysia J. Syska, Lubin & Meyer PC.
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