A jury in Ventura County awarded $7.75 million to the family of a nursing home abuse victim, who filed an elder abuse lawsuit against the Fillmore Convalescent Center. According to a news report in the Ventura County Star, the trial featured a videotape, which showed the woman being abused by the nursing home employees. Apparently the secret camera caught employee Monica Garcia slapping the 71-year-old victim, Maria Arellano, pulling her around by her hair, bending her neck, fingers and wrist, and treating her violently in a shower chair. Garcia did face criminal charges and pleaded no contest to simple battery. Her attorney has said that Garcia is "deeply sorry" for her actions and will never work in a nursing home environment again.

Serious Case of Nursing Home Abuse

When family members complained after noticing, during a visit, that Arellano was bruised, the nursing care provider took no action and did not investigate it. So, it was the family that set up a hidden video camera on a side table in her room. The jury awarded Arellano and her family $2.75 in actual damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

I'm glad that this Southern California jury carefully considered the evidence that was before them and arrived at the right decision -- to punish the nursing home for their poor hiring choices and lack of proper supervision of their employees. Recent reports and studies have also shown that a majority of nursing home abuse and elder abuse cases in nursing facilities and convalescent homes go unreported because victims and their families fear retaliation from the facility and staff members.

A Personal Injury Attorney Can Help

In many cases, families have nowhere else to take their loved ones. In fact, Arellano still remains at Fillmore Convalescent despite the lawsuit. The facility itself scored a five-star rating this month, the best and highest rating, from the Nursing Home Compare system run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This only goes to show that no rating system is perfect and there is no system that documents everything that happens in a nursing home and makes that information available to consumers.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of nursing home abuse or negligence, please contact an experienced California personal injury lawyer who will hold these wrongdoers accountable for their actions. In this case, I'm glad that the jury awarded punitive damages because that should hopefully, deter nursing home operators from taking their residents for granted, and encourage them to try harder and ensure patient safety and well-being -- something that should have been a top priority for them, in the first place.

We are not representing any of the parties mentioned in this article at the time the article was posted. Our information source is cited in the article. If you were involved in this incident or a similar incident and have questions as to your rights and options, call a reputable law firm. Do not act solely upon the information provided herein. Get a consultation. The best law firms will provide a free confidential consultation to "not a fault" persons named in this article and their family members.