Jury Awards $200,000 in Death of Patient, 80
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Wednesday found that a Canoga Park convalescent hospital was negligent in a man’s death and ordered its owner to pay the man’s daughter nearly $200,000.
Howard W. Suesz died Dec. 13, 1981, two weeks after his 80th birthday. His daughter, Mary Sagor of Woodland Hills, maintained in a lawsuit that Beverly Manor Convalescent Hospital, her father’s doctor and the defunct Parkwood Community Hospital of Canoga Park were responsible.
The jury found that the doctor and Parkwood Community were not to blame. But it decided that Beverly Enterprises, which owns Beverly Manor, should pay Sagor $185,000 for loss of love and companionship, $2,981 for medical expenses, $6,000 for funeral arrangements and $5,800 for negligent conduct.
Sagor said her father was admitted to Beverly Manor on July 27, 1981, with diabetes and poor circulation. A month later, he was admitted to Parkwood nearly comatose with fever and two bedsores, said her attorney, Robert L. Kornswiet. Suesz died almost four months later at Valley Hospital Medical Center.
The attorney for Beverly Manor could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Judge Philip F. Jones presided over the civil trial, which began Jan. 13.
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