Woman's heir accuses care center of neglect

A Galveston County heir filed suit against a health care facility, citing negligence.

Joseph Hagler, as an heir of Gladys Hagler, filed a complaint Sept. 29 in Galveston County District Court against WTCS Health Care Center Inc. doing business as Ashton Parke Care Center, citing negligence.

According to the complaint, Gladys Hagler was a resident of the Ashton Parke from Oct. 5, 2009, to Dec. 11, 2013. By March 2012, the suit states, the patient required extensive assistance with activities of daily living and suffered from bladder and bowel incontinence, and one to two people were necessary to help with mobility and a the use of a mechanical lift was initiated.

According to the complaint, on Oct. 12, 2012, the patient weighed 133 pounds, and had lost almost 40 pounds since March 2012. On Nov. 10, 2012, physicians noted a skin tear on the patient's buttock and a pressure ulcer on her sacrum, the suit states. Wound care was discontinued Dec. 11, 2012, with the defendants stating the wound had healed, the suit states, but on Dec. 26, 2012, the "right buttocks wound continues to worsen growing deeper and tunneling," and the inside of the wound was described as "greenish with dead tissue," and producing a foul odor.

The suit states on Dec. 27, 2012, the patient was seen by a wound care specialist for a wound on the left buttock but not the right. The treatments continued for a year until the patient was put on hospice care Jan. 17, 2014, and passed away March 20.

The plaintiff alleges the defendants were negligent in prevention of patient's pressure ulcers and caring for them once they were diagnosed. Joseph Hagler seeks damages between $200,000 and $1 million, plus court costs.

He is represented by attorneys Robert M. Wharton, Leena Blocker and Mary E. Green of McIver Brown Law Firm in Houston.

Galveston County District Court case number: 56:14-CV-1036