Jury awards $9M in Baltimore County nursing home bedsore death

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A Baltimore County jury awarded more than $9 million to the family of a pastor who died in 2020 from a severe bedsore he developed while living in a Timonium nursing home.

The judgment will be reduced to just over $1 million, however, because of Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages.

The lawsuit claimed that Randolph J. Mack, a Rosedale resident and pastor at New Beginning Bible Baptist Church, was staying at the Stella Maris nursing home in Baltimore County when he developed a severe pressure wound, also known as a bedsore, on his lower back.

Mack died on Dec. 4, 2020, according to his family’s lawsuit. His death certificate noted that he died from severe sepsis and other ailments related to the infected bedsore, the complaint said.

A six-person jury heard the case and concluded that the fatal wound was caused by negligence at the Stella Maris long-term care facility, where Mack had been staying for about six months after suffering a stroke.

Lawyers for Mack’s estate and family said in a news release that the jury’s award is believed to be the highest verdict ever recorded in a Maryland nursing home case.

The case was tried by Reza Davani, of Ketterer, Brown & Associates, and Tara Eberly Kellermeyer, of Janet, Janet & Suggs.

After a seven-day trial, the jury returned a verdict that included $8 million to Mack’s estate for his pain and suffering and another $1 million for the emotional harm that Mack’s family experienced.

According to the family’s lawyers, medical records showed that Mack was left on his back without being repositioned for long stretches while he lived at Stella Maris. Evidence in the case also showed that Mack was not regularly cleaned and sometimes had to lay in his own feces for “prolonged periods of time,” which may have contributed to the painful bedsore, the lawyers said.

Stella Maris was represented by Gallagher Evelius & Jones LLP. James Bragdon, one of the lawyers for the facility, did not return a request for comment.

The $9 million award will be reduced to $1.037 million under Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice wrongful death cases brought by two or more surviving family members. In non-medical malpractice wrongful death cases, the cap is more than $1 million higher.

Patrick A. Thronson, a partner at Janet, Janet & Suggs, said Mack’s case shows the need to revisit Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages.

“There’s no reason to conclude that the pain and suffering of the Mack family or other victims of healthcare malpractice would be any different than those experienced by plaintiffs in a non-medical malpractice wrongful death case,” Thronson said. “That really highlights the injustice and irrationality of this cap.”