The Texas Court of Appeals upheld a $7.11 million jury award to nursing aide Nicole Tarpley after she was injured moving a 300‑pound patient in May 2016 at Red Bluff LLC in Pasadena, Texas.
The injury occurred when Tarpley, hired just three weeks earlier, helped resident Tom, who weighed more than 300 pounds, transfer from bed to wheelchair. Tom’s weight required two staff, but the facility’s assistant director of nursing, Lisa Kemp, had instructed Tarpley to proceed alone.
The appeals court found Red Bluff failed to provide adequate training, noting that the nurse’s supervisor had given only one day of floor training instead of the required two days and that the facility’s instructions were insufficient for a patient of that weight.
In reviewing future medical expenses, the court reduced the jury’s $500,000 award to $235,551.49, citing surgeon Dr Henry Small’s estimate that Tarpley would need two more neck surgeries but no cost could be substantiated for a planned spinal cord stimulator.
Tarpley, who now experiences constant knee pain and cannot lift her children, said the reduction would jeopardize her recovery, but the court held the jury’s physical impairment awards of $750,000 for past impairment and $2 million for future impairment intact.
Tarpley has 20 days to accept the proposed reduction; if she declines, the case will be remanded to the trial court for a new determination of liability and damages.