We were expecting to get Closing Arguments Monday, in the Gallatin Nursing Home trial. But, jurors ran out of time before many of them had to get to Sumner County's school registration Monday afternoon.
Ruth Summers was an 89-year-old resident at the Gallatin-based nursing home. Her family is now suing that facility, saying that in March 2020 she got COVID there and later died because of their negligence.
Jurors heard from two final rebuttal witnesses, called by the attorneys for the family of Ruth Summers. Dr. Mitchell Blass took the stand again, this time via Zoom, to talk about how COVID mitigation could have saved Ruth's life.
"I don’t think there’s a healthcare facility in the United States of America that did not experience COVID in some degree, but I think if we adhere to the tools that we had at the time, you lower the risk of any individual from becoming infected," said Blass.
The judge did have time to instruct the jury, which should speed up the process tomorrow. Some of Judge Joe Thompson's instructions were especially pertinent, since jurors have heard conflicting eye witness testimony. Nurses have testified that they were forced to work sick, while supervisors and managers have testified that didn't happen.
Jurors have also heard from different sets of experts that have argued COVID was either possible for mitigation or completely inevitable.
"It is for you to decide which witnesses you believe and how important you think their testimony is. To do that, you should rely on your own common sense and every day experience," declared Judge Thompson. "You may conclude that a witness deliberately lied about a fact that is important to your decision in this case -- if so, you may reject everything that witness said. On the other hand, if you decide the witness lied about some things but told the truth about others, you may accept the part you decide is true and you may reject the rest."
Tuesday morning, closing arguments will get underway first thing. Then the fate of this lawsuit will be in the hands of 12 men and women from Gallatin.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
