Nurse Kills Patient, Nursing Home Suing Dead Man's Family For Outstanding Bill

A nursing home in New York, that lost a wrongful death suit of an elderly patient who died in its care, is now suing the family of the victim for his outstanding bill.

According to the New York Post, Woodhaven Care Center in Long Island, which was ordered to pay $1 million to the family of 82-year-old Salvatore Niosi after his death Dec. 13, 2013, has filed a lawsuit against the patient’s loved ones. The counter suit claimed that Niosi’s family owed the facility money for six years that he was admitted in the center, following a clerical error with his Medicaid application.

The lawyer for the victim’s estate, Michael Regan, said his position on the matter was that “the nursing home shouldn’t financially benefit from killing this guy.”

Clifford Argintar, a lawyer for the family, said the victim was admitted to the Woodhaven Care Center after he had suffered multiple strokes that left him unable to move, speak or even swallow properly. The wheelchair-bound patient was only supposed to consume pureed food. However, on the ill-fated day, a nurse fed him a sandwich without consulting his medical chart. She even forgot to put in his dentures prior to feeding him solid food, which caused Niosi to choke. He was dead within three minutes.

It took the staff at the facility half an hour to call 911 after Niosi’s death. “Suffocating to death, even if for a short period of time, is a terrible way to die,” said Argintar.

An autopsy report confirmed that the patient’s death was due to choking, more specifically, “food material in airway.” In June 2015, Niosi's daughter, Silvia Teixiera, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the nursing home. Although they initially denied being responsible for the patient’s death, they eventually admitted the error during the trial, leaving the jury to make a monetary judgment for the victim’s death. The final verdict was announced last week.

Teixiera, 41, said her father’s death came 10 months before the birth of her fourth child. “It would have been nice for him to know he had another grandchild,’’ she said. “It’s sad that he had to go in that way and that he had to have panic in his face and that I wasn’t there with him.”

Earlier this month, Boston Children's Hospital filed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabian Prince Abdelilah bin Abdelaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Faisal Al Saud, who had promised to foot the bill for a 2-year-old patient's treatment. The toddler, who was not identified, was suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that affected her movement and which required continual treatment. Although her treatment had accumulated a bill of over 3.5 million, the defendant and his personal physician and representative, Dr. Hamdy Dawoud, had only paid “$750,000 toward the patient's care despite repeated promises that additional payment will be forthcoming," the suit said, CNN reported.