Jury awards Sutter Health patient $1.4 million for negligence By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer Published 3:16 pm PST Friday, March 24, 2006 A Sacramento Superior Court jury has slapped one of the largest skilled nursing operators in the region with a $1.4 million judgment for medical negligence, elder abuse and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Constance Virginia Dilley, who is now 85, suffered from a grapefruit size bedsore in 2003 that took two years to heal. The jurors also found that Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region acted with "oppression, malice or fraud." Punitive damages will be decided in a separate phase of the trial scheduled April 3. "We sympathize with the patient and her complicated medical condition. Our number one priority is always to provide good and caring treatment four our patients," said Nancy Turner, Sutter’s spokesperson. After a three-month trial, jurors Monday found that Dilley and her daughter, Eileen Dancause, suffered past and future pain and suffering due to Dilley's care at Sutter Roseville Medical Center and later at the Transitional Care Center inside Sutter General in Sacramento.