Carl Hagwood and Michael Phillips won a defense verdict on March 6 in a wrongful death case tried in U.S. District Court for the Southern Division in Natchez.
The plaintiff alleged that the decedent died as a result of negligence on the part of the nursing home in Yazoo City which caused malnutrition, dehydration, weight loss, skin breakdowns, infections, contractures and death.
The defense proved their case by showing that the staff and physicians fully informed the family on numerous occasions of the disease process caused by Alzheimer’s dementia and that the complaints raised by the plaintiffs were the predictable outcome of Stage 7 (end stage) Alzheimer’s disease.
After a five-day trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the defendant.