A Georgia jury has returned a $23.6 million verdict against PruittHealth over the death of a nursing home resident whose family alleged that nurses sedated him with unprescribed morphine as a chemical restraint. The verdict, reported by 13WMAZ, followed a trial that began August 10 in Gwinnett County State Court, where the company is headquartered.
Chemical restraint is one of the most serious allegations that can be made against a long-term care facility, and it is also one of the hardest for families to detect. Unlike a fall or a pressure injury, sedation leaves no visible wound. A resident who is oversedated appears quiet, compliant, and easy to care for, which is precisely the outcome that makes the practice attractive on an understaffed unit.
Federal regulation is explicit that residents have the right to be free from any physical or chemical restraint imposed for discipline or convenience and not required to treat medical symptoms. A drug used to manage a resident’s behavior rather than a diagnosed condition is a restraint under that standard, regardless of what it is called in the chart.
The allegations in this case follow a pattern that recurs in nursing home litigation: a resident with cognitive impairment and difficult behaviors, a unit without enough staff to provide the supervision and redirection those behaviors require, and medication used to fill the gap. The lawsuit’s claims that a nurse who objected was threatened and that the medical director was fired describe the second half of that pattern, in which the people best positioned to stop the practice are the ones pushed out.
Residents who cannot reliably communicate are the most exposed. Owens had trouble with coherence, according to the lawsuit. A resident in that position cannot tell a visiting family member that he is being medicated, and a family member who finds him unusually drowsy has little way of knowing whether the cause is illness, dementia, or a drug that was never prescribed.
Families ask us how they would ever know. The honest answer is that the signs are subtle and cumulative rather than dramatic. A resident who was alert on Tuesday and cannot stay awake through a Sunday visit. Slurred speech that staff attribute to progression. New difficulty swallowing or eating. A resident who stops participating in activities she used to enjoy. Any of these can have an innocent explanation, and all of them are worth pressing on.
The medication administration record is the document that answers the question. Families have the right to request it, and it will show every drug given, the dose, the time, and the ordering physician. A sedating medication appearing without a corresponding order, or given far more often than ordered, is not a paperwork discrepancy. Records showing that staff raised concerns internally, and what happened to those staff afterward, are also discoverable, and in this case they formed a central part of the family’s claim.
Oversedation also compounds every other risk in a nursing home. A resident who is heavily medicated does not shift position, does not report pain from a developing pressure injury, and cannot call for help. Chemical restraint and skin breakdown frequently appear in the same chart for exactly that reason.
If you believe a loved one was given medication that was not prescribed, or was sedated to manage behavior rather than to treat a diagnosed condition, the records will show it. Call 844-407-6737 or reach us at bedsore.law/contact for a free, confidential review.
