Verdict

Verdict

News4Jax in Florida reported the recent verdict against a care facility for vulnerable adults. Anne Fiorito suffered an eye injury while a resident of Cypress Village Retirement Community. It is owned and operated by Vitas Healthcare Corporation of Florida, a large corporation that offers hospice and palliative care to elderly residents. A jury found neglect and compensated the family of Anne Fiorito around $2.5 million against Vitas.

Facts

Steve Watrel of Coker Law represented the family and spoke of the evidence:

“When you look at the totality of the evidence in the case it was either her [caregiver] fist or elbow that struck Miss Fiorito in the eye. The doctor said it was from a direct blow to the eye. It wasn’t from shampoo or something else.” 

After the incident, Fiorito had a detached retina with multiple hemorrhages in her eye. She lost sight in her eye. She became depressed. Fiorito died in early 2018. Her husband, Joe Fiorito, paid around $10,000 a month for her safety in the memory unit. Roughly $5,000 a month to Vitas and then the other $5,000 to the facility.

“It was devastating to know that mom was supposedly being taken care of and something this tragic would happen to her. It’s been a long time but we now have justice for my mom. It takes a long time but it all worked out and I’m so happy that it did. It’s just, you have to treat elderly people with dignity.”