PITTSBURGH — A woman alleges her father died after ingesting drain cleaner left on a cart at a veterans nursing home in Pittsburgh.
Deborah L. U'ren, administratrix of the Estate of James L. Turton, filed a complaint Aug. 18 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County against Southwestern Veterans Center, Department of Military Affairs and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania alleging negligence and wrongful death.
According to the plaintiff's complaint, her father James Turton, who was 75 years old and suffered from Alzheimer's, was admitted to the Southwestern Veterans Center nursing facility in Pittsburgh in November of 2018. She alleges that despite her father's documented conditions of wandering, disorientation, confusion, delusions and other issues, he was allowed to freely wander the facility without supervision or a wandering prevention system.
The plaintiff alleges that on Feb. 26, 2021, her father was wandering the facility's hallways in his wheelchair, took a bottle of drain cleaner off of the janitorial cart and drank from it. He began to vomit and go into respiratory distress.
She claims her father was taken by ambulance to the VA Hospital where he died the following week. He allegedly had suffered damage to his vocal cords, esophagus and stomach due to ingesting the cleaning chemicals.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants' negligence for failing to keep her father from physical harm and for failing to provide a safe environment or take necessary precautions to supervise her father. She also alleges the defendants' neglect led to her father's wandering and gaining access to the toxic chemicals.
The plaintiff seeks monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. She is represented by Brittani Hassen of Kontos Mengine Killion & Hassen in Pittsburgh.