The family of a former Walmart greeter has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a northern Utah nursing home, alleging she developed severe, infected bedsores during a rehabilitation stay after surgery and later died from complications that included MRSA and sepsis. Relatives say the care failures began within days of her admission and worsened over months.
The lawsuit centers on Tamara “Tammy” Bircumshaw, a Layton grandmother who entered Rocky Mountain Care in Clearfield in July 2022 after hip surgery, according to accounts shared by her family and attorney. They say the stay was supposed to be short and focused on recovery so she could move on to additional planned treatment. Instead, the family claims pressure sores formed quickly, deepened, became infected and delayed further surgery. The case adds to growing scrutiny of staffing and basic bedside care in rehabilitation units, where patients often depend on workers to move them, keep skin clean and spot complications early.
Bircumshaw was 66 when she died in July 2023, and her family says the chain of events started with an on-the-job injury while she worked as a greeter. Her son, Kenny Bircumshaw, said a back injury set off a long medical spiral that included back surgery and later serious hip problems. He said the family expected the nursing home stay after hip surgery would help his mother regain strength and mobility so she could proceed with the next step in her care plan. “They’re way short-staffed,” he said in an interview summarized in reports about the lawsuit, describing what he said the family saw as her condition worsened. He said she went from upbeat and talkative to exhausted and in pain as wounds spread and her strength faded.
According to the family’s attorney, Barry Toone, signs of trouble appeared quickly. He said it took about 11 days after Bircumshaw’s admission for pressure sores to begin forming. Pressure sores, also called bedsores, can develop when people with limited movement stay in one position too long, cutting blood flow and damaging skin and tissue. Families and advocates often view serious pressure ulcers as a warning sign that routine care is breaking down. The lawsuit claims the nursing home did not prevent the sores from forming, did not identify and treat them quickly and did not provide the level of skilled wound care the family says was needed as the injuries worsened.
The family also alleges the sores had immediate and lasting consequences for her medical care. Relatives said Bircumshaw returned to a hospital for another planned hip procedure, but the surgeon stopped and canceled the operation after seeing the severity of a pressure sore. Kenny Bircumshaw said the surgeon called family members from the operating room and told them he could not continue because the sore was too large. The family said the cancellation meant more time in pain and a longer period with limited mobility, conditions that can raise the risk that pressure injuries worsen and infection takes hold. Their attorney has described that point as a turning moment, when a rehabilitation stay shifted into a crisis that dominated the rest of her life.
Within about a month of the canceled surgery, the lawsuit says Bircumshaw tested positive for MRSA, a type of staph infection known for resisting some antibiotics. Serious MRSA infections can be difficult to treat, especially in deep wounds and in patients weakened by surgery and long periods of limited movement. The family claims infection spread as the sores progressed, and they link her death to complications that included sepsis, the body’s extreme response to infection that can cause organ failure. They have described her final days as grim and painful. Kenny Bircumshaw said she was largely unable to speak near the end, but managed to tell her grandson she loved him during the night before she died. He said she died the next morning.
The lawsuit’s timeline includes a specific claim about delayed specialty care. The family alleges specialized wound care did not begin until Dec. 27, 2022, months after the first pressure injuries formed, and that clinicians diagnosed a stage 4 pressure ulcer at that point. Stage 4 ulcers are the most severe category and can extend into muscle and bone. The family says she had developed three bedsores by then. Toone has described one wound as measuring about 11 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 4 centimeters, comparing it to two smartphones placed side by side. The family contends wounds of that size and depth do not develop without repeated lapses, such as missed turning schedules, delayed hygiene, inconsistent monitoring, or slow response to early skin breakdown.
Rocky Mountain Care did not publicly detail its account in the summaries of the lawsuit described in recent reports, and the facility was described as declining to comment to a local television station. At this stage, the family’s allegations have not been tested at trial. Civil lawsuits often develop through a long exchange of medical records, staffing logs, wound assessments and expert testimony, and the nursing home will have the opportunity to respond, dispute the timeline and challenge the claim that understaffing caused the injuries and death. Public reporting about the case has not laid out the full contents of the complaint, including every legal count and the precise amount of damages sought.
Even so, the dispute highlights how quickly a patient’s condition can change in a rehabilitation setting, where residents may need help with nearly every basic task. In many nursing facilities, staff members are responsible for repositioning residents on fixed schedules, checking skin for early signs of pressure injury and making sure wounds are treated before they deepen. When a patient cannot easily move or speak up, relatives and advocates say the system depends on staffing levels and clear routines. The family’s lawsuit argues the failures were not isolated mistakes but part of a broader pattern at the facility during the months Bircumshaw stayed there.
Cases involving pressure ulcers often turn on the details of care plans and documentation. Providers may argue wounds were unavoidable because of a patient’s underlying health, while families argue that basic steps could have prevented the injuries or kept them from becoming infected. The Bircumshaw family says the early appearance of sores, the alleged delay in specialty care and the later diagnosis of a stage 4 ulcer point to systemic problems. They say the wounds delayed needed procedures, kept Bircumshaw in pain and limited her movement, creating conditions they believe allowed infection to spread. The defense, once filed in court, may focus on medical complexity, preexisting conditions, or differing clinical judgments about risk, timing and treatment.
Family members have described Bircumshaw as a lifelong Utahn who loved cooking for relatives and planning outings close to home. They said the contrast between those memories and what they saw during her stay was difficult to absorb. Kenny Bircumshaw said the family watched her energy fade as the wounds spread, and he has framed the lawsuit as an attempt to get accountability for a period when she could not care for herself. Toone has said the case is about what he describes as neglect, arguing that when patients enter a facility for short-term recovery, they should not leave with severe wounds that take over their medical care.
The lawsuit also raises questions about what information families receive when conditions worsen. Relatives have suggested they did not understand how serious the pressure injuries were until they had progressed, and they have described a late shift into more intensive wound treatment. A key issue in similar cases is communication: whether staff informed families promptly, whether doctors and nurses documented the first signs of skin damage, and whether care teams adjusted plans when risks rose. Public summaries of this lawsuit do not provide a day-by-day log, but the family points to the reported 11-day window before sores formed and the December diagnosis date as central markers of what they call a breakdown in routine care.
More broadly, the case lands in a national conversation about nursing home staffing and oversight, especially in facilities that serve both long-term residents and short-term rehabilitation patients. Rehabilitation units often take patients soon after hospital discharges, when they may be weak, in pain and unable to move well. That combination can make them vulnerable to falls, dehydration, infection and pressure injuries. Regulators and advocates have long debated what staffing levels are needed to deliver consistent care, and families often say they have few options when a loved one needs a bed quickly after surgery. The Bircumshaw family says their experience is a warning about what can happen when basic care tasks are missed.
The legal process is expected to unfold over months, and the next steps are likely to include formal responses from the nursing home, court scheduling and the exchange of records. If the case proceeds, both sides may bring in wound care and nursing experts to review charts, photographs and treatment notes, and to address whether the injuries were preventable. Public reporting about the lawsuit has not identified a trial date, and court proceedings have not yet produced a tested public record resolving the family’s claims. For now, the allegations have put Rocky Mountain Care and the wider system of post-surgery rehabilitation under renewed attention in northern Utah.
Author note: Last updated February 17, 2026.