F.M. lived at an Independence, Missouri nursing home.  She was a skilled nursing patient requiring help with most, if not all, of her daily activities.  She was often restless in her bed and relied upon the nursing home to provide for her daily needs, safety, and treatment.  In response to her restlessness, the facility placed her on a bed with siderails.  Even though she repeatedly became entangled in the siderails, giving the facility notice that she was in danger of becoming entrapped in the siderails, the facility personnel failed to alter the bed system on which she was placed.

At some point in her residency, F.M. was placed on an air mattress.  The air mattress was substantially too small for the bed frame and side rails.  As a result, a large gap was created that dramatically increased the risk that F.M. could slip into the gap and asphyxiate.  Not only did facility employees know of this gap, they went so far as to communicate that information to the corporate office.  The corporate office instructed the facility to continue using the mattress and bed system as they were.  The risk of asphyxiation to F.M. was known and ignored.

The corporate office and facility were well aware of the dangers that side rail gaps posed to vulnerable nursing home residents, even to the point that they had created a policy by which each bed was to be checked for gaps.  Whether it was checked or not, there is no dispute that F.M. managed to become entangled in the bedrails and died a horrific death by asphyxiation.

F.M.'s two children, Nancy and Elwin, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility and its corporate parent, as well as the mattress and bedrail manufacturers.  Shortly before the trial was scheduled to begin, the parties reached separate confidential settlements.  Nancy and Elwin can be seen discussing their mother's death here.

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