A survival claim covers the damages that a nursing home resident suffered before he or she died. This includes damages for pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, and medical expenses. It is all of the things that they would have been able to claim had they survived to the point the case went to verdict.Because these are damages that the deceased person had before he or she passed away, it is considered an asset of the estate.
Therefore, if there was a will, the damages for the survival claim are distributed in accordance with the terms of the will.
If there was no will, then the damages from the survival action are allocated in accordance with a statute in the Probate Act called the statute of intestate descent and distribution which governs what happens to the assets of a deceased person when there is no will. Generally, it provides for the money to go to the surviving next of kin.