From Deseret News archives:
Nursing home suit is settled
The settlement ends a lawsuit that claimed the Wisconsin Veterans Home, which houses about 700 veterans in four separate facilities, had an untrained and inadequate nursing staff.
The home made the payment to William LaBarge's widow last month, and a judge accepted the settlement last week.
Details of the settlement came a week after President Bush ordered an investigation of military and veteran hospitals after reports of shoddy outpatient health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The lawsuit claimed LaBarge fell out of bed and fractured his hip in December 2003 after nurses failed to place an alarm on his bed.
When he returned days later with a case of aspiration pneumonia, nurses failed to follow a plan to monitor and treat the condition, the suit said.
He died the following month at age 70 from the pneumonia, with his hip fracture contributing.
LaBarge's widow declined to comment on the advice of her lawyer, Miles Lindner. Lindner did not return phone messages this week.
Commandant J.W. Crowley, who has led the home since 2003, said he could not comment on the settlement.
