Though she was 98 years old, the death of longtime Tucsonan Irma Smith was hastened due to neglect by staff members at Devon Gables nursing home, an attorney told a Pima County jury Wednesday.

When she died on Sept. 7, 2006, Smith was in unnecessary pain from a pressure sore on her lower backside that had grown to the width of a grapefruit, was an inch deep and had eaten through muscle and bone, attorney Melanie Bossie told the jury as a trial opened before Superior Court Judge Stephen C. Villarreal.

Bossie is representing Smith's daughter, Kathleen Havens, in a wrongful-death lawsuit against Devon Gables Healthcare Center, 6150 E. Grant Road.

But Devon Gables' attorney, Michael Ryan, countered that Smith was in the process of dying while she was at the nursing home, which is why the pressure sore got worse.

Ryan said that as far back as May 2006, documents show that Smith was already failing to thrive and suffering from bruises, tears in the skin and persistent wounds that wouldn't heal.

Bossie characterized the for-profit nursing home as scrimping on staffing levels and staff training to bolster its bottom line at the expense of resident care.

She said Smith fell face-down on the floor from her wheelchair while Devon Gables staff members left her unattended and that she suffered head, arm and leg wounds.

The fall was an "unfortunate accident," Ryan said.

Ryan said Smith's weight dropped from 136 to 119 in just one month before her admission to Devon Gables.

"Her body was shutting down," Ryan said, noting that Smith was a longtime Type 2 diabetic who also had suffered heart problems.

"It was a generalized failure to thrive. She was unfortunately very susceptible to bruising and skin tears at this point in her life," he said.

Smith was admitted to Devon Gables on July 9, 2006, because Havens, a nurse, was having trouble lifting and caring for her frail, elderly mother. Smith remained at the facility until she fell from her wheelchair on Aug. 27, 2006, and was transferred to Tucson Medical Center. As a result of the severely infected pressure sore, Smith developed sepsis and died in hospice 10 days later.

"There were mistakes in documentation. But Devon Gables treats people, not documents," Ryan told the jury.

"People are the most important part of what they do."

But Bossie said Smith did not get the attention she needed from Devon Gables, including the adequate turning and repositioning that would have prevented or at least minimized the risk of pressure sores and progressing infection.

Bossie told the jury she wasn't trying to argue that Smith would have lived until 110. But before her final illness, Smith had been alert, doing crosswords, and she attended her grandson's wedding. And there's a difference between dying of natural causes and dying as a result of a hole in one's backside that causes a deadly and painful infection, she said.

The trial is expected to last until April 30.