The family of caregiver Barbara “Bobbie” Kolada, who died while employed at a group home run by Grants Pass-based Partnerships in Community Living, filed a wrongful death suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Friday.

The suit seeks $10 million in damages and names as defendants Partnerships in Community Living Inc., PCL co-founder Joanne Fuhrman, and the state of Oregon to include the Department of Human Services and the Office of Developmental Disabilities Services.

The complaint alleges claims of intentional wrongful death, battery and abuse of a vulnerable person, applicable in instances where individuals are older than 65.

The suit, which seeks a jury trial, was filed on behalf of the estate of Barbara J. Kolada. Kolada’s daughter, Jessica Bandy McFeron, is listed in Jackson County Circuit Court as the personal representative of her mother’s estate.

Kolada was a 66-year-old grandmother whose death was the subject of a five-part series produced by the Rogue Valley Times in May 2023. Kolada was injured inside a PCL-run home on Ruth Drive in Medford on Feb. 20, 2023, and died of her injuries five weeks later on March 27, 2023.

The Times’ coverage merited recognition with the Baker Family Public Service Journalism Award during the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest. The award was for stories published in 2023.

Leading up to her death, Kolada had been working alone during a night shift while caring for two developmentally disabled adult residents.

One of the residents became agitated when Kolada was unable to connect his device to WiFi, according to the complaint and earlier Times coverage. Kolada later reported leaving the room and recalling the resident following her and shoving her through a doorway of the home.

Kolada was found in puddles of her own blood hours after the initial alleged attack, with a broken neck and brain bleed. In addition to uncovering a decade of work-related injuries for Kolada, the Times interviewed other caregivers and industry employees who shared tales of being injured and hospitalized while working in PCL group homes where safety concerns had allegedly been ignored.

Representatives for PCL were not immediately available for comment Friday. Fuhrman has said that there is no evidence Kolada’s death was caused by a resident.  

The case was investigated by Medford police and forwarded to the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office. No charges were ever filed.

The suit filed Friday alleges that Kolada, who began working for PCL in January 2014, had been assaulted on multiple occasions by the resident, identified as “C.B.” in court documents, prior to her final injury Feb. 20, 2023.

The suit further alleges that PCL knew C.B. was prone to “physical aggression and violent actions,” such as pinching, biting, pushing and hitting when he was frustrated.

“C.B.’s prior assaults were reported and resulted in multiple police and incident reports between 2012 and 2023 as well as many on-the-job injuries sustained by Barbara Kolada,” the suit states. “One month prior to February 20, 2023, C.B. shoved Barbara Kolada on her chest with such force that she fell over. Defendant PCL knew CB would assault and injure Barbara Kolada again.”

The suit alleges that PCL failed to protect Kolada. “Defendants knew at least two PCL employees should be staffed during each shift working at the homes for disabled adults to ensure their safety. Defendants had a duty to ensure that PCL employees would be reasonably safe at work.”

In a written statement provided to the Times on Friday, McFeron’s attorney, John Oswald of Portland-based Bottini Bottini & Oswald PC, said he hoped that filing of the case would “shine a light on the serious safety issues Oregon caregivers face on a daily basis.”

“These problems are systemic, they are ongoing, and they can be fatal. Barbara Kolada should still be with us today, but warnings were willfully ignored, violence was downplayed, and staffing protocols were disregarded,” Oswald said.

“She dedicated her life to caring for the disabled and yet the state and employer intentionally failed to provide basic safety measures to protect her from physical harm. Simply put, she paid for their lack of care with her life,” he said.

“Oregon caregivers deserve so much better. Nothing will change until we demand change, and our goal is to make sure this preventable and heartbreaking outcome never happens again.”

Follow this developing story at rv-times.com.