Ronald N. Lebovits

Ronald Lebovits recovered $500,000.00 for a 56 year old man who choked to death at a community outing while under the supervision of his personal care aides. The man suffered from profound developmental and cognitive disabilities. Among his care needs, the caregivers were required to supervise all meals and instructed to “block him from reaching for food that is not chopped,” to maintain “1:1 supervision by staff until the last resident has finished eating at each meal,” and to “position themselves between (our client) and other residents at all mealtimes.” On the day of his tragic death, the facility took him to a community outing hosted and sponsored by a local university to raise awareness for persons with special needs. The host university served food for its guests, which our client grabbed and ate without supervision while his aide was not paying attention. He started choking on the food and while actively experiencing an airway obstruction, his assigned caregiver repeatedly yanked him up from the ground by a gait bell which was intended to protect him from falling. Less than 1 hour after our client arrived at the local university, he was pronounced dead at an area hospital and taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.

Few injuries evoke as strong an emotional response among our clients as pressure injuries. Whether bone deep wounds located on a resident’s tail bone or a gangrenous ulcer located on a heel necessitating an amputation, Zarwin Baum has handled hundreds of pressure injury cases over the past 20 years, recovering millions of dollars collectively for our clients. Most recently, Attorney Lebovits secured a jury verdict award of $700,000.00 for a client agaisnt a New Jersey nursing home that caused her to develop a pressure injury on her buttock due to an assortment of care failures. Prior to the trial, the Defendant made no settlement offer.