$11 Million Verdict for Estate of 88-Year-Old Who Developed Fatal Heel Wounds at Albuquerque Nursing Facility

In June 2013, Esther Collado, 88, was admitted to The Medical Resort at Fiesta Park in Albuquerque for short-term skilled nursing care after hip surgery. Her stay lasted five weeks, from June 25 to July 31, 2013. When she returned home and family members removed her stockings, they found wounds on both heels that a certified wound nurse later described as resembling a giant purple-red plum. The nurse confirmed deep tissue injuries on both heels.

The wounds required repeated and painful debridement. They also blocked Mrs. Collado's rehabilitation: a physician ordered her not to bear weight until the injuries healed, so she lost conditioning at the time when early walking matters most for elderly patients recovering from hip surgery. Within weeks her legs showed marked deconditioning. She eventually developed sepsis from a heel infection, required a feeding tube, and suffered escalating organ stress. Mrs. Collado died on May 26, 2015, about two months before her 90th birthday. Her death certificate lists congestive heart failure.

The wrongful death estate, represented by Jeffrey A. Pitman and Benjamin E. Reyes of Pitman, Kalkhoff, Sicula and Dentice (now PKSD), sued the facility and its two affiliated management entities. The case centered on how responsibility was structured across three companies under common ownership: Fiesta Park Healthcare LLC (the licensed operator), Enchanted Health Development LLC (the named management company), and WW Management LLC (the payroll and operations company that in practice performed most management functions and collected the management fee). Plaintiff's nursing home administration expert testified that the staffing policies were inadequate and irresponsible, and that sometimes only two nurses covered three units across multiple shifts. Plaintiff's wound care expert told the jury that all that needed to be done to prevent the injuries was to keep Mrs. Collado's heels raised off the bed, a basic precaution absent from her care plan.

Trial began in January 2019. The jury found all three defendants individually negligent and also found that they operated as a joint venture, triggering joint and several liability. It returned a verdict of $11 million, which included $6 million in punitive damages. After the verdict the trial court granted a motion that eliminated joint and several liability on the ground that the evidence did not support the joint venture instruction, though each entity's individual liability findings remained intact.

On appeal, the New Mexico Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in an opinion filed August 31, 2022 (No. A-1-CA-38271, 525 P.3d 378). The court held that the record supported the jury's joint venture finding given the intermingled ownership, the informal fee-diversion arrangement between Enchanted and WWM, and the blurring of management responsibilities across entities. The court reinstated the original judgment, including joint and several liability, in full.