The family of a 66-year-old Walmart greeter who died in 2023 has sued a northern Utah nursing home, alleging she developed large, infected bedsores during a rehabilitation stay after surgery and later died from complications that included MRSA and sepsis.
The lawsuit, filed against Rocky Mountain Care in Clearfield, describes what the family calls a pattern of neglect that began within days of her admission and worsened over months. Relatives say Tamara “Tammy” Bircumshaw entered the facility in July 2022 expecting short-term rehab following hip surgery, but her condition declined as pressure sores formed, deepened and became infected. The suit also alleges the facility was chronically understaffed, leaving her without basic care such as regular repositioning and timely wound treatment.
Bircumshaw, a grandmother from Layton, had worked as a greeter at Walmart when a back injury set off a medical spiral, her family said. She underwent back surgery in an effort to address the injury, then faced additional problems that required hip care. Her son, Kenny Bircumshaw, said the family expected her time at the nursing home to be temporary, with a plan to recover and proceed with another hip procedure. Instead, he said, the family watched her go from upbeat and talkative to exhausted and in pain as wounds spread and her strength faded.
According to accounts shared by the family and their attorney, Bircumshaw began developing pressure sores within about 11 days of being admitted to the facility after surgery. Pressure sores, also called bedsores, can form when people with limited mobility remain in one position for long periods, reducing blood flow and damaging skin and tissue. The family’s attorney, Barry Toone, said the rapid development of sores raised early alarms and changed the course of her medical care.
The family says one of the most immediate consequences was the delay of her next surgery. They said she returned to the hospital for another planned hip procedure, but a surgeon stopped the process after seeing the severity of a pressure sore. Kenny Bircumshaw said the surgeon called the family from the operating room and said he could not continue because the sore was too large. The cancellation, the family said, meant more time in pain and a longer period with limited movement, which can increase the risk that pressure injuries worsen.
Over the following weeks, the lawsuit alleges, Bircumshaw’s condition continued to deteriorate and the sores became harder to manage. The family says she tested positive for MRSA about a month after the surgery was called off. MRSA is a type of staph infection that can be difficult to treat because it resists some antibiotics. When such infections enter deep wounds or spread through the bloodstream, they can become life-threatening, particularly for people already weakened by surgery and limited mobility.
The lawsuit claims that specialized wound care did not begin until late December 2022, months after the first pressure injuries formed. In the filing, the family says Bircumshaw did not receive that level of care until Dec. 27, 2022, when clinicians diagnosed her with a stage 4 pressure ulcer, the most severe category, which can extend into muscle and bone. By that time, the lawsuit alleges, she had developed three bedsores. Toone said one pressure wound measured about 11 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 4 centimeters, describing it as roughly the size of two smartphones placed side by side.
Bircumshaw died in July 2023, and the lawsuit links her death to complications from the bedsores and resulting infections, including sepsis. Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming response to infection and can cause organ failure. The family’s description of her final days is grim. Kenny Bircumshaw said she was largely unable to speak near the end, but told her grandson she loved him during the night before she died. He said she died the next morning. In public comments, he described her final period as marked by pain and a loss of the personality family members knew.
The case places a spotlight on the role nursing homes play in caring for patients who arrive after hospital stays. Many residents in rehabilitation units need help moving, eating, bathing and getting to the bathroom, and they rely on staff to prevent complications such as falls, dehydration and pressure injuries. Advocates and clinicians have long warned that pressure ulcers can be a red flag for breakdowns in routine care, including missed turning schedules, delayed hygiene, and lack of consistent monitoring. The family’s lawsuit argues that those failures were not isolated but systemic at the facility where Bircumshaw stayed.
Rocky Mountain Care did not publicly detail its version of events in the coverage cited by the family, and the facility did not provide a substantive response to inquiries described in news reports. The facility declined to comment when asked by a local television station, according to published accounts. In court, the nursing home will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations, dispute the timeline and challenge the claim that understaffing caused her injuries and death. At this stage, the family’s account reflects claims in a civil lawsuit, which have not been tested at trial.
The lawsuit focuses on several alleged failures: not preventing sores from forming, not identifying and treating them quickly, and not providing the kind of skilled wound care the family says was required as her wounds worsened. The family contends that pressure injuries of the severity described do not develop without repeated lapses, such as leaving an immobile patient in the same position for too long or failing to keep skin clean and dry. They also argue that a delay in specialist wound treatment allowed infection to take hold and spread.
Toone said the case is about accountability for what he described as neglect during a period when Bircumshaw could not care for herself. He and the family have described the facility as short-staffed and have said staffing levels affected everything from turning schedules to the attention given to changing dressings and monitoring wounds. The family has also framed the lawsuit as a warning that similar failures can happen to other patients who enter a nursing home expecting short-term rehab and do not have family members present at all times.
Because the family has not publicly released the full complaint, key details remain unclear in public reporting, including the specific counts in the lawsuit and the exact damages sought. The family has emphasized that they want the facility held responsible and that they believe Bircumshaw’s decline was avoidable. Their public comments have focused less on a dollar figure and more on the condition they say she endured, including the depth and size of the wounds and the pain they believe accompanied them.
Bircumshaw’s death was felt deeply in her hometown. Her obituary described a lifelong Utah resident who loved cooking for her family and taking trips to local destinations. Relatives have spoken of her as a person who enjoyed gatherings and made a home around food and conversation. In interviews, her son has contrasted those memories with what he said he saw during her rehabilitation stay: a growing quietness, escalating pain and a loss of the energy that defined her earlier months in care.
The legal process is expected to unfold over months, and the case could hinge on medical records, staffing logs, wound assessments and testimony from caregivers and experts. Such cases often involve competing views about whether wounds were preventable, whether they were properly documented, and whether infections arose from conditions that could have been controlled in a facility setting. The family’s lawsuit argues that the chain of events began with basic care lapses and ended with an infection-driven death.
For now, the allegations have placed Rocky Mountain Care and the broader nursing home system under fresh scrutiny in Utah, where families often rely on skilled nursing facilities during recovery after major surgeries. Bircumshaw’s relatives say their intent is to show what happened during what was supposed to be a short stay and to press for answers about why her wounds progressed to the point that a surgeon halted a procedure and, later, doctors diagnosed a stage 4 ulcer.
As of Monday, court proceedings and any formal response by the facility were not publicly summarized in available reports, and no trial date was known. The family has continued to speak publicly about Bircumshaw’s decline, saying the wounds and infections that followed left lasting questions about how she was cared for when she was most vulnerable.
Author note: Last updated February 16, 2026.