An Indiana family has filed a nursing home wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of a loved one challenging the constitutionality of Indiana’s Adult Wrongful Death statute.

The nursing home wrongful death lawsuit is being filed by the family of a patient of Life Care Center of Rochester; a for-profit corporation that owns and manages more than 220 skilled nursing home facilities across the U.S., , according to an article in The News Times.

The family filed the nursing home wrongful death lawsuit after learning the death of their loved one who suffered serious head injuries. The lawsuit challenges the validity of the Indiana Adult Wrongful Death Act and claims wrongful death and neglect by the nursing home.

According to the complaint, the patient in the nursing home suffered serious head injuries after suffering multiple falls. She was admitted into the nursing home as a patient diagnosed with dementia. Her family says side effects suffered as a result of her fall included brain swelling and massive subdural bleeding. The second fall led to her admittance to a hospital where she passed two days thereafter, according to the lawsuit.

Life Care is being accused of having “knowingly understaffed the facility and placed its patient population in serious and clearly foreseeable danger of harm and injury.”

An attorney representing the victim’s family told the News Times, “We cannot allow huge for-profit nursing home chains being paid billions of dollars to care for their patients to so egregiously skimp on nursing staff to boost their bottom line, with a callous disregard for the patients they harm and kill as a result.”

The nursing home wrongful death lawsuit further alleges that Life Care among the other named defendants “have engaged in a history and pattern of practice of wrongfully choosing to place corporate profits over the needs of their patients.”

During the time of the patient’s admission to Life Care, the facility was also tied to an investigation by the Indiana State Department of Health. According to the complaint, there were serious failures revealed from the investigation that were “strongly indicative of serious systemic failures in the hiring, staffing, training, oversight and management” of the facility, the complaint reports. The facility was also involved in a Federal False Claims Act enforcement action led by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2016 which settled for $147 million.

According to the nursing home wrongful death lawsuit, the complaint is challenging the constitutionality of Indiana’s Adult Wrongful Death Statute. According to the statute, the “loss and companionship” suffered because of the death of a victim due to proven negligence committed is $300,000. However, for pain and suffering suffered, the statute by Indiana law does not allow for any recovery for a victim killed by negligent acts by a defendant.