Jury awards $1.2 Billion in Polk nursing-home negligence case

A Polk County jury has handed down a verdict in a nursing home negligence case totaling more than $1.2 billion in damages. The Lakeland Ledger reports that a jury spent a little more than an hour Monday before deciding to award $220 million in damages and $1 billion in punitive damages. The lawsuit focused on the treatment of Arlene Townsend, who stayed at Auburndale Oaks Healthcare Center. The Lake Wales woman lived at the facility from 2004 until her death in 2007. She was 69. The lawsuit states Townsend repeatedly fell while at the nursing home and was not properly supervised.