A Utah family’s wrongful death lawsuit accuses Rocky Mountain Care in Clearfield of letting a 66-year-old Walmart greeter develop massive pressure sores that turned septic, while the facility has not yet publicly answered in detail how her final months unfolded.
TLDR
A Utah wrongful death lawsuit alleges Rocky Mountain Care failed to prevent or properly treat severe pressure sores on 66-year-old Walmart greeter Tamara Bircumshaw, leading to MRSA infection, sepsis, and her July 2023 death, while the facility has not publicly addressed specific allegations in court filings.
From Store Injury to Rehabilitation Stay
According to the complaint described by Law&Crime, Tamara “Tammy” Bircumshaw was a 66-year-old Walmart greeter from Layton, Utah, when a back injury at work set off a cascade of medical events. Her family says she underwent back surgery, then experienced deterioration in her hips that led doctors to plan hip replacement surgery.
Her son, Kenny Bircumshaw, told local television station KTVX, as reported by Law&Crime, that his mother entered Rocky Mountain Care in Clearfield for rehabilitation and recovery. He recalled that at first she seemed upbeat, saying she was initially happy and cheerful at the facility before her condition worsened.
The lawsuit alleges that while she was in the nursing home for what was supposed to be a short-term stay, her health declined in ways that should have been preventable. The family contends routine repositioning, monitoring, and timely wound care could have averted the pressure sores that later dominated her final months.
By July 2023, the 66-year-old grandmother was dead. The lawsuit links her death to complications from the pressure sores that developed while she was a resident at Rocky Mountain Care, including infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA, and sepsis.
Alleged Delays in Treating Severe Wounds
The family’s account centers on a timeline they say shows critical delays in identifying and treating Bircumshaw’s pressure sores. Her son told KTVX that the planned hip replacement surgery was cancelled when a surgeon found a large pressure sore during a preoperative evaluation.
According to the lawsuit, the surgeon telephoned the family from the operating room and explained that he could not proceed with the surgery because the sore was too large and severe. The lawsuit asserts that Bircumshaw was later tested and found positive for MRSA about one month after that cancellation.
In the complaint, the family alleges that specialized wound care did not begin until December 27th, 2022. By that date, the lawsuit claims, she had already developed three bedsores, including at least one classified as a stage 4 pressure ulcer, the most advanced and destructive category.
Attorney Richard Toone, who represents the family, told KTVX that one of the wounds measured approximately 11 by 10 by 4 centimeters. He described it as comparable in size to two iPhones placed side by side, and said Bircumshaw ultimately died from sepsis related to the infected wounds.
These assertions, while specific, remain allegations at this stage. They reflect the family’s interpretation of medical records and the course of care, which Rocky Mountain Care has not publicly addressed in detail. The facility declined to comment to KTVX and did not respond to Law&Crime’s attempts to reach it, according to that outlet.
Staffing, Oversight, and the Lawsuit’s Claims
Beyond individual treatment decisions, the lawsuit and family interviews focus heavily on staffing levels at Rocky Mountain Care. The complaint alleges the facility was chronically understaffed, which the plaintiffs say contributed directly to lapses in basic care such as regular turning, hygiene, and skin checks.
In describing life inside the nursing home, Kenny Bircumshaw told KTVX that staff were stretched too thin. He said, as quoted by Law&Crime, that they were “way short-staffed” and that his mother’s condition deteriorated from cheerful to miserable as pain from the sores intensified.
The lawsuit frames understaffing as more than an operational challenge, casting it as a systemic problem that constituted negligence. It alleges the facility breached its duty by failing to employ enough trained personnel to carry out physician orders, monitor residents’ skin, and respond promptly to early signs of pressure injuries.
Under U.S. law, nursing homes have a legal obligation to prevent avoidable pressure ulcers and to treat existing ones promptly and appropriately. The family argues that Bircumshaw’s stage 4 wound, described as the size of multiple smartphones, could not have developed without prolonged periods of unrelieved pressure and inadequate monitoring.
In one of the most personal parts of the family’s account, Kenny Bircumshaw recalled his mother’s last night, saying she lay in pain and spoke only once, telling her grandson that she loved him. “Total neglect on their end is what ended up taking her,” he said of the facility, according to Law&Crime’s reporting on the KTVX interview.
What the Court Will Have to Decide
The lawsuit seeks to hold Rocky Mountain Care legally responsible for Bircumshaw’s death, asserting claims typically found in nursing home litigation, including negligence and wrongful death. To succeed, the family will have to show that the facility owed her a duty of care, breached that duty, and that the breach directly caused the injuries and complications that led to her death.
Pressure sores, MRSA, and sepsis can arise even in medically fragile patients receiving appropriate care. The central question for a court or jury, if the case proceeds to trial, will be whether the evidence supports the family’s contention that these outcomes were avoidable and resulted from substandard care and understaffing at the Clearfield facility.
Medical records, wound care notes, staffing schedules, and internal policies are likely to become key evidence. Expert witnesses in geriatrics, wound care, and nursing home administration would typically be asked to interpret that documentation, compare it to accepted standards, and explain whether the timeline of Bircumshaw’s sores and infections indicates preventable neglect or an unfortunate, but non-negligent, medical decline.
For now, the public record is shaped mainly by the family’s lawsuit and their interviews with local media. Rocky Mountain Care has not, at least publicly, presented its own detailed narrative of what happened between Bircumshaw’s admission, the discovery of her pressure sores, the delayed wound care alleged in the complaint, and her death in July 2023.
As the case moves forward, court filings may clarify contested points in the timeline, from when staff first documented skin breakdown to when specialized wound care began. Whether a judge or jury ultimately concludes that her fatal infections were the product of unavoidable medical complications or of actionable neglect will determine not only liability in this case, but also how this Utah family’s allegations are recorded in the legal history of nursing home care.
