Akers

This single-issue appeal challenges the court’s refusal, in an elder abuse case against a nursing home physician, to admit photographs of an 89-year-old woman taken several days after she died. The plaintiff offered the photographs to show the condition of a severe bedsore.

There was no abuse of discretion by the trial court. The jury heard extensive testimony regarding the size and condition of the bedsore and how bedsores should be treated. The defense relied on expert testimony that the bedsore was the unavoidable result of decedent’s poor physical condition and could not have been prevented even with reasonable medical care. The photographs had no bearing on this central issue, and it is improbable that their admission or exclusion would have affected the verdict.

I

Frances Doherty, born in 1902, suffered from the weaknesses of the elderly and multiple medical problems. By her 88th birthday, she was unable to eat, drink, or turn herself in bed, and had a catheter to drain her urine. Chronically bedridden and unable to communicate, she suffered from multiple bedsores and was moved back and forth from hospitals to nursing homes.

The decedent was hospitalized in the…