GREENVILLE, Miss. - At 83, Henry Gibson had a stroke.

His doctor recommended he go to a nursing home where he could get the care and physical therapy he needed to regain his strength and hopefully return home.

Gibson's wife and children fully expected the former mail carrier and church deacon to come back home and resume his life.

But he never got the chance.

He was abused and neglected in Arnold Avenue Nursing Home in Greenville and died in the hospital on Jan. 26, 2003, at the age of 86.

Gibson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing homes owners and operators, Magnolia Healthcare, Inc. and Foundation Health Services, Inc.

On Sept. 10, 2009, a Washington County jury awarded the family $1.5 million.

"The family hoped the jury would hold the operators of this nursing home accountable for the suffering their father endured. Thankfully, they did." said Lance Reins, an attorney with Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. who represented the family.

While a resident at Arnold Avenue Nursing Home, Henry Gibson suffered from malnutrition, dehydration, bedsores, and a broken arm, which no one discovered until he was hospitalized.

He was often left to sit in his own filth, and when his family complained, the nurses regularly gave the excuse that they were short-staffed. Gibson's family tried to move him to a better facility, but it was too late.

"Because they didn't give him proper care," said his daughter, Bridgette Gibson. "They didn't -- when he was admitted, they told me 'Don't worry, don't worry, he's going to be taken care of. We're going to do everything we can to make his, to take care of him.' And they didn't do that. Daddy had sores on him."

"They should have been more attentive to him," Bridgette Gibson said. "They should have taken much better care of him."

Currently, Mississippi code includes a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages for standard-of-care cases, so the judge reduced the verdict to $500,000, plus $75,000 the jury awarded specifically for Gibson's permanent disfigurement.

The suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Washington County, Mississippi Fourth Judicial District.