Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

Our Washington, D.C. Nursing Home Lawyers have been following a recent article from the Washington Post that was published last week, where Karen Feld, the 61-year old Washington D.C. socialite and former gossip columnist, has filed a nursing home negligence and fraud lawsuit against her former home-care giver, for nearly $1.5 million.

According to the Post, Feld hired Inger Sheinbaum, a 61-year old Austrian to be her private nurse and home-care companion to provide 24-hour care after she recovered from brain surgery in January 2008.

In the Washington D.C. nursing home negligence and fraud lawsuit, Feld alleges that Sheinbaum was not accurate about her qualifications as a registered nurse in Washington, D.C. She accuses Sheinbaum of allowing men to enter and exit Feld’s room in the hospital, which reportedly lead to great fear for Feld as she recovered from her post-traumatic stress disorder. Sheinbaum is also being accused of leaving Feld alone at critical junctures during her role as a home-care provider.

Sheinbaum, who only worked for Feld for a week, resigned after Feld allegedly attacked her while shouting obscenities in a rant. Feld claims the rant was a result of her seizures. Sheinbaum’s attorney claims that the lawsuit has no merit.

Continue reading " Washington D.C. Socialite Sues Round-the-Clock Nurse for Negligence " »

In a recent blog, our Maryland Accident Attorneys discussed the topic of whether bed rails in Maryland nursing homes are a potential health hazard, or whether they protect the health and safety of residents.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.), nearly 2.5 million nursing home and hospital beds are currently used in this country. In an F.D.A. study, from 1985 to 2008, there have reportedly been 772 incidents where hospital and nursing home patients have been trapped, stuck, or strangled in beds that had rails. Out of this number, 176 were saved by the staff before experiencing injury, 136 experienced personal injuries that were nonfatal, and 460 patients died.

Bedrails are designed to aid in helping patients pull themselves up, turn into a different positions in the bed, provide a feeling of security, and keep patients who are frail, or who have been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s safe from harm, such as falling, or rolling out of bed.

Unfortunately these very patients often get trapped or stuck in the space between the mattress and the bedrails, causing personal injury, strangulation, suffocating, and wrongful death, which can result in a Maryland personal injury lawsuit. Bedrail injuries can often result in nursing home falls, when a patient attempts to climb over the rails, bruising or scrapes to the skin, as well as a feeling of restriction, and agitated behavior from being restrained.

Continue reading " F.D.A. Bed Rail Safety Guidelines for Maryland Nursing Homes " »

In a recent blog, our Baltimore, Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys discussed the complaint by the U.S. Justice Department against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), for paying illegal kickback payments in the millions to the massive drug pharmacy Omnicare, to increase sales of antipsychotic prescriptions drugs like Risperdal for nursing home patients suffering from dementia.

According to an article published last week on Bloomberg.com, J&J reportedly planned to reach the goal of selling over $3 million in sales of Risperdal to geriatric patients just a few months after they were told by federal regulators that the drug was falsely claimed by the company to be an effective and safe treatment for elderly patients and residents of nursing homes.

The article claims that J&J was told in 1999 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the materials the company was using to market to elderly patients did not properly reflect Risperdal’s health benefits and risks—and could affect the health and safety of elderly nursing home patients. According to new unsealed documents revealed in a Louisiana State lawsuit, the business plan for J&J for the following year planned for an increase in the market share of the drugs to for dementia patient sales, with unapproved use.

Officials in Louisiana claim in the lawsuit that J&J negligently marketed the drug Risperdal to vulnerable elderly patients for uses that were unapproved. The lawsuit accuses J&J of the “off-label” marketing of Risperdal, and is seeking millions of dollars in monetary reimbursement of the public funds that were spend on the drug. Ten states have sued J&J over the negligent marketing and sales practices of Risperdal.

Continue reading " J&J Promoted Risperdal for Nursing Home Residents After FDA Warning " »

In a previous blog, our Hartford, Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys discussed the ongoing and serious issue many nursing homes are facing today—how to keep elderly residents who share facilities with younger mentally ill patients and criminals, safe from nursing home abuse and violence.

The Chicago Tribune reported today after an historic Illinois court settlement, that thousands of mentally ill patients are likely to move out of nursing homes over the next five years and into settings that are more community-based, due to a new legal agreement that has been created to rework the long-term health care system in Illinois.

According to the Chicago Tribune, more than any other state, Illinois uses nursing home facilities to house younger mentally ill adults, and this includes thousands of residents with felony records. The Tribune spearheaded a massive investigation recently, reporting a long list of nursing home violence, sexual assault, substandard care, and drug abuse in nursing home facilities, where psychiatric patients weren’t adequately supervised or monitored to maintain their safety as well as the health and safety of the elderly residents of the nursing home, to prevent resident injury or harm.

The agreement reportedly plans for state officials to offer around 4,500 nursing home residents who are mentally ill a choice between staying in the 24 large facilities that are known as IMDs, or “institutions for mental diseases,” or to move into smaller environments that are better suited for their disabilities and reportedly less expensive. The settlement reportedly only covers residents of the IMDs, which will still leave nearly 10,000 mentally ill residents living in nursing home facilities without the IMD classification among elderly and disabled residents.

Continue reading " Landmark Settlement Moves Mentally Ill Residents Out of Nursing Homes " »

As Washington D.C. area nursing home negligence and abuse attorneys, we have been following the recent news of the an 82-year old patient who experienced a wrongful death after receiving another patient's medication while staying at the Fair Oaks Lodge, a nursing facility in Minnesota.

According to ABC News, an employee at the home negligently gave the patient, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, another resident’s medicine on June 1, 2009. The medication mistake caused the patient’s blood pressure to seriously drop, and after being rushed to the hospital, the woman died six days later while in intensive care.

The article claims that this same medical mistake has happened at the facility twice before, with two different patients, from May 27 to June 23, 2009. The two residents reportedly survived, but the nursing home was held responsible by the state for nursing home neglect, and their procedures were audited.

As a result of the nursing home negligence, the employee who made the medical mistake was reportedly reprimanded and re-trained, but no longer works at the nursing home.

Continue reading " Medication Mistake Leads to Wrongful Death in Nursing Home " »

As Washington D.C. area nursing home lawyers, we have been following a recent lawsuit settlement, where a 94-year resident who lived in a convalescent home in Santa Clarita, California was awarded 12.5 million by a jury in punitive and compensatory damages for enduring nursing home abuse and sexual assault.

According to the lawsuit, Sophie Schwartz, a resident at Oakdale Heights facility who has dementia, was sexually assaulted by Jose Vazquez in her room on December 16, 2007. Vazquez was a dietary aid working at the facility, and was hired by Oakdale Heights Management Corporation, although he was allegedly an illegal immigrant.

The jury ruled that the corporation falsified certain documents relating to employment when hiring Vazquez, and also violated many California state laws that govern the quality of care for dementia residents in nursing homes that can lead to resident neglect, poor supervision, negligent in hiring practices and understaffing.

Vazquez allegedly had keys that gave him access to all of the resident’s room. According to the suit, his background check was not valid before being hired, and he had no training on how to deal with residents who were elderly. Vazquez was admittedly drunk at the time, and he claimed that he and other workers often drank on the job.

Continue reading " 94-Year Old Sexual Assault Victim in Nursing Home Receives $12.5 Million " »

In recent national news that our Maryland-based Nursing Home Attorneys have been following, two nursing homes have settled in a wrongful death lawsuit, after the family of a resident sued the homes for not providing adequate care, and acting with nursing home negligence.

In the lawsuit, the family members of Ralph Seewald claimed that both Riverside Health Care Center and Village Health Care Center failed to provide proper care for the late-87-year old resident during his stay at the homes before his death in November 2005.

According to the suit, Seewald entered the Riverside Health Care Center in December 2004, with slight symptoms of dementia, and the plan for his care required two nursing home attendants to use a safety gain belt to assist him with all lifting and transfers to and from the wheelchair. Seewald was reportedly often transferred from the wheelchair by only one attendant with no gain belt, which reportedly lead to numerous falls.

Seewald allegedly suffered a fall while being transferred by only one attendant without a gain belt, from his wheelchair to the toilet on May 23, 2005, and broke his neck—leaving him bound to his bed. While immobile and bedridden, he developed serious decubitus ulcers, or pressure sores, that progressed rapidly during a few months, and led to a case of gangrene in his leg that allegedly caused his wrongful death.

Continue reading " Pressure Sores Lead to Wrongful Death—Nursing Homes Settles Suit with Family " »