The daughter of a former LaFayette, Ga., nursing home resident is suing the company because mites burrowed into her mother’s scalp, face, chest, breasts, shoulders, back, arms and hands.
Rebecca Estelle Zeni, 92, died in June 2015 after living in the Shepherd Hills nursing home for five years. She was there through three crusted scabies outbreaks, according to Department of Public Health records and facility infection logs.
Attorneys for Zeni’s daughter, Pamela Puryear, argue in the lawsuit the center’s staff was negligent, failing to properly isolate residents with the infection, treat those who fell victim or rush Zeni to a hospital in time to save her.
Attorneys filed a lawsuit against PruittHealth, a for-profit company that runs Shepherd Hills and dozens of other nursing homes, in Gwinnett County in April 2016.
A lawyer for the company, Jeffrey Braintwain, argues that, among other defenses, injuries may have been caused by people PruittHealth cannot control. This includes Puryear and Zeni herself.