Verdicts & Settlements
CMC to pay $600,000 in death of 92-year-old woman
Community Medical Center will pay $600,000 to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the children of a 92-year-old Dunmore woman who died after she was allegedly strangulated in the restraining vest nurses put on her.
Mary Besket died Dec. 1, 1998, after more than four months on oxygen and in a coma - a coma brought on, her family alleges, by oxygen deprivation to the brain.
Mrs. Besket, who was put in restraints because she had wandered out of her bed earlier in the night, was found caught in her bed's railing, her head close to the floor, just before dawn on June 22, 1998.
The settlement was approved Thursday by Judge Terrence R. Nealon. Mrs. Besket's sons, Joseph, of Cockeysville, Md., and John, of Silver Spring, Md., and daughter Ann Linko, South Scranton, will divide $329,889 equally, while their law firm of Munley, Munley & Cartwright will get $240,000, or 40 percent of the total. The remainder covers expenses associated with the lawsuit.
In court papers, CMC alleged that nurses found Mrs. Besket hanging out of bed and not breathing. Hospital workers performed CPR, the hospital said, but it resulted in brain damage. It denied that Mrs. Besket choked on the restraining vest.
The hospital said in court papers that Mrs. Besket ultimately died of heart problems.
Attorney Marion K. Munley, representing the family, alleged that "it would have taken her a number of minutes to lose consciousness during which time she would have been aware of her situation and danger. She would have been fearful, helpless in her position and struggling for her life."
Ms. Munley also claimed in court papers that hospital staff "backdated" Mrs. Besket's chart, adding a notation two weeks after the incident to make it appear that Mrs. Besket was checked more often than she really was.
