Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

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" »

As nursing home attorneys in the state of Maryland and the Washington D.C. area, we have been following the recent Britthaven of Chapel Hill Nursing Home investigation where Alzheimer’s patients have tested positive for serious pain-management prescription drugs that weren’t prescribed for them, and that they weren’t supposed to be receiving.

According to a recent news article, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Unit have launched a criminal investigation of the nursing home to determine if the patients were being over-medicated, abused or neglected, or being subjected to chemical restraint.

The investigation began after three Alzheimer’s patients from the nursing home were taken to local hospitals after nursing home staff claimed the patients were acting in an unusual manner. The hospital officials contacted the police, and the state Department of Health and Human Services, and officials from Britthaven after their blood tests showed strong drugs in their system that were not prescribed to them as patients.

The nursing home officials then reportedly tested all of the nearly 25 residents in the Alzheimer’s unit for drugs. Six of these patients tested positively for opiates, the drugs often used for pain management. Three of the patients were subsequently hospitalized, one of which died two days later.

Continue reading "State Investigates Nursing Home for Possible Negligence and Chemical Restraint" »

As Maryland Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys we recently discussed the blog topic of health and safety in nursing homes and the importance of supervising residents who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, to prevent the common problem of resident wandering and nursing home falls that can lead to wrongful deaths.

In related nursing home negligence news, an Illinois family is suing Maryville Manor’s nursing home for negligence and the wrongful death of Jewel Lane, a resident of the home. In the suit they allege that the nursing home allowed Lane to escape—an act that reportedly lead to his death.

According to the suit, Lane was admitted to the nursing home on March 24, and suffered a nursing home fall days later on April 1. The suit alleges that one week later, Lane was allowed to leave the nursing home premises, and died shortly after from pulmonary arrest, hypothermia, and exposure to the outside elements. The home is being accused of negligence for failing to supervise Lane properly, failure to properly secure the exits and windows to prevent wandering residents, failure to protect Lane from harming himself, and failing to house Lane in a room that would prevent him from leaving the premises unnoticed.

The Lanes seek a judgment of more than $200,000 as well as fees and costs for the attorneys, and funeral and medical costs. Lane’s wife and daughter claim that because of his death, they have lost his financial support, companionship, and affection.

Continue reading " Wrongful Death and Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit—Family Sues for Damages" »

In recent news that our Washington D.C. Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys have been following, a nursing home resident filed a negligence lawsuit after the home allegedly failed to keep him safe from nursing home falls, and diagnose, treat and care for his injuries after a fall—which lead to infection, gangrene, and ultimately the amputation of his finger.

According to the suit, Juan Riostirado, a resident of Glenbridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Illinois, fell in his room and injured his hand on December 7, 2008. Although Riostirado was reported to have a high risk for such falls, there were no notes recording the fall or the personal injury in his paperwork until December 19, 2008.

The suit alleges that the only record of the injury was on December 19th, 2008, when a nurse wrote that Riostirado’s right ring finger was swollen, and that the finger should be monitored for five days. There were no more notes entered between December 19th and December 16th, 2008.

Riostirado was reportedly experiencing severe pain and swelling of his right ring finger on January 4, 2009, and according to the suit was diagnosed with gangrene of the finger the next day. Five days later, Riostirado was sent into surgery to have his finger amputated from complications due to gangrene.

The lawsuit claims that the nursing home is responsible for keeping its residents safe from nursing home falls, and should have treated and cared for Riostirado’s personal injury before it resulted in amputation. The suit is seeking over $50,000 in damages.

If you are worried that a friend or loved one staying at a nursing home in Maryland or the Washington D.C. area is suffering from nursing home falls due to negligence, contact our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC for a free consultation. Call us at 1-800-654-1949.

Man Sues Nursing Home After Losing Finger, Niles Herald-Spectator, February 16, 2010

Related Web Resources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: (CDC), Falls in Nursing Homes

As Maryland Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys, we have been following the recent $10 million lawsuit filed by the family of John Phillips, a well known judge from Brooklyn, alleging that a Park Slope nursing home gave him substandard care and treated him with negligence, leading to his wrongful death.

According to the suit, Judge John Phillips, otherwise known as the “Kung Fu judge” for making martial arts moves in court during his 17 years as a Civil Court judge, the Prospect Park Residence allegedly neglected to give Phillips meals that adhered to his diabetic restrictions, and often missed giving him his necessary insulin shots.

Phillips was a resident in the Prospect Park Residence for eight months, until his death at the age of 83, after collapsing in an elevator of the home. His family claim that his wrongful death resulted from nursing home negligence.

According to the family of Phillips, he was a health fanatic, with a 10th-degree black belt in martial arts, who never drank alcohol or smoked cigarettes. He reportedly went to bed every night at eight o'clock in the evening.

Continue reading "Family of ‘Kung Fu judge’ Claims Neglect and Wrongful Death in Nursing Home Lawsuit" »

In national news, our Maryland-based nursing home abuse lawyers have been reading about a recent lawsuit filed against the operators and four former aides of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society Home in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where nursing home residents were reportedly subjected to a five month pattern of nursing home abuse that involved verbal, sexual and emotional abuse.

According to the Star Tribune, the four former nursing assistants are facing criminal charges for the alleged nursing home abuse of up to fifteen Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in 2008. This lawsuit comes in addition to criminal charges that have already been filed in the case in Freeborn County Court. The incidents reportedly surfaced in May of 2008, and became public after the release of a report from the Minnesota Department of Health that concluded that the four nursing aides who were teenagers at the time were involved in nursing home abuse and neglect.

The former nursing aides, Ashton Larson and Brianna Broitzman, Alicia Heilmann and Kaylee Nash are being accused of abusing residents, by entering their rooms and locking the doors in order to sexually grope and poke at the breasts, genitals and rectums of the residents, spit in residents’ mouths, and simulate sexual activity with residents, among other charges. The suit also accuses the former nursing assistants of video taping the sexual acts and battery and laughing while the frail and vulnerable adults are screaming from the abuse. Broitzman and Larson are scheduled for trial later this year on a total of 21 criminal charges.

In the lawsuit, the nurses are being accused of civil assault and battery, causing emotional distress, and failure to report the unlawful treatment of the residents. Good Samaritan is being accused of failing to protect the elderly residents from abuse and negligence in management and supervision of the nursing aides. The suit states that Good Samaritan owed a duty to the residents to protect them from abuse and neglect, to ensure that the nursing staff were properly supervised and train to care for the needs of vulnerable adults and residents in the nursing home.

Continue reading "Former Nursing Home Assistants and Good Samaritan Home Sued for Abuse and Negligence" »

As Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys, we have been following a lawsuit in which a 65-year old paralyzed patient in a nursing home was allegedly dropped to the floor twice. Her family claims that the second nursing home fall resulted in her wrongful death.

According to the lawsuit, Adriana Neagoe fainted in front of her church and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After surgery to treat the tumor left her body paralyzed with the ability to only move one arm, her family decided on Midway Nursing Home in Queens, New York for her care.

In the spring of 2008, Neagoe’s family was told that she had fallen from her bed, a bed that is protected by guardrails. Her family claims in the suit that she couldn’t have fallen, as she was paralyzed. The resident needed constant care—to be lifted up for bathing, and so the sheets could be changed.

Neagoe reportedly told her family that they dropped her on her head, from five feet up in the air. After she experienced the second nursing home fall, she was rushed to the hospital, where she died six days later from severe head injuries. Her family claims her death was caused from complications of these falls, due to nursing home negligence.

Continue reading "Family Sues for Nursing Home Falls and Wrongful Death" »

In yesterday’s blog, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys discussed the complaint filed last week by the U.S. Justice Department against Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly paying millions of dollars in kickback payments Omnicare, the largest pharmacy in the country, to increase sales of antipsychotic prescription drugs given to nursing home patients. According to the complaint, Omnicare was allegedly persuading physicians to prescribe drugs like the antipsychotic Risperdal for patients with dementia, even though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug for dementia treatment.

In 1987, Congress passed landmark laws protecting patients from unnecessary drugs, and, according to these regulations, nursing home residents have the right to be protected from chemical restraints and medication for the sake of convenience or discipline to nursing home staff or doctors. It is illegal for facilities to give strong psychotropic drugs to patients without a doctor’s orders, patient’s consent and treatment justification, as patients may experience dangerous side effects like tremors, severe lethargy, nursing home falls, and wrongful death.

The Department of Health and Human Services states that nursing homes are required to have an outside pharmacist consult and review a patient’s medication schedule at least once a month. Once the outside pharmacist checks with the patient, they are obligated to report any oddities in the prescription drug schedule with the physician, and are able to make recommendations on how they would alter the medicine plan. But according to the complaint by the government, Johnson & Johnson used the consultant pharmacists as a tool to increase market share—dissolving the trust and integrity that should be a cornerstone for the health and safety of nursing home residents.

The New York Times reported this is not the first time that a drug company has been charged for using antipsychotic prescriptions to drug elderly residents. Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor last January in a nearly $1.5 billion settlement of criminal and civil charges that the pharmaceutical company had marketed Zyprexa, the antipsychotic drug for the treatment of dementia with elderly people. Omnicare and Johnson & Johnson were reportedly trying to compete against AstraZenica’s antipsychotics, by increasing market share for Risperdal.

Continue reading " Nursing Home Residents Allegedly Drugged for Pharmacy Gain" »

Maryland Lawmakers headed to Annapolis last week for the annual 90-day session of the Maryland General Assembly, and Delegate Sue Hecht from Frederick County, a Democrat, has returned to support one of her bills that would allow families to use video cameras to monitor the treatment of elderly residents in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Hecht is reportedly reintroducing Vera’s Law, HB557—Video Monitoring Legislation, a longtime bill she has worked on, to allow elderly residents to have video monitoring in their rooms for protection against nursing home abuse, negligence and violence.

Delegate Hecht originally introduced the bill after she witnessed her grandmother experience nursing home abuse by a nurse’s aid while residing in a home, over ten years ago. Vera’s Law is named after her Grandmother.

Hecht also reintroduced this legislative proposal in 2009—to give assisted nursing home and assisted living facility residents and their families the right to install video cameras or monitoring devices in the resident’s room, with consent of the roommate. The bill from 2009 did not require that the monitoring was paid for by the facility—the cost would be covered by the resident or resident’s family, as would the mounting device for the camera.

Continue reading "Maryland Lawmaker Supports Nursing Home Video Monitoring Legislation" »

In a recent article discussing decubitus ulcers, a leading cause of nursing home injury and death in this country affecting nearly one million Americans every year, our Maryland-based attorneys from Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC have read about another tragic case, where a resident of a nursing home developed multiple non-healing pressure ulcers that allegedly lead to his death.

According to the lawsuit, Edwin Ley developed multiple pressure sores or decubitus ulcers while staying in Collinsville Rehabilitation and Health Care, that developed on his buttocks, feet, elbows and coccyx. Ley reportedly died from the complications of these sores and from severe malnourishment and neglect while being a patient at the center from December 4, 2007 through January 23, 2008.

When a nursing home resident rests for too long in one position without shifting weight, the resident’s blood supply to the skin is cut off, due to unrelieved pressure. The skin then begins to breaks down, and causes decubitus ulcers to form.

The suit was filed by Dorothy Ley, special administrator for Ley’s estate, and she states in the complaint that Ley’s condition deteriorated to such an extreme state that he was sent to the emergency room and diagnosed with dehydration and pressure ulcers. Edwin Ley died on June 10, 2008 from his condition, and according to the suit, in the months before his death, he suffered pain, disability, medical costs, and disfigurement.

Continue reading "Pressure Ulcers Claim Resident’s Life—Nursing Home Sued for Negligence" »

Our nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers in Maryland and the Washington D.C. area have been following the news of a lawsuit settlement announced yesterday between five Missouri-based nursing homes, the operator of the homes, and federal prosecutors. The homes were charged with severe negligence, inadequate care, lack of staffing, and complaints of fraud.

The five nursing homes are all operated by Cathedral Rock of Texas, but are located in Missouri. According to the Star-Telegram, the nursing home company acted with severe nursing home neglect, by leaving nursing home residents’ skin sores untreated for so long that they became infested with maggots and amputations were necessary. The staff was also accused of not bathing, feeding, or providing the proper bathroom accommodations for the nursing home residents.

In the plea agreements, the company admitted that the homes were not equipped with enough staff to provide adequate nursing home care and that residents often did not receive required medication or proper wound care treatment. The company also admitted to doctoring the medical records to give the appearance that all patient medications had been administered, regardless of whether they had been given or not. The nursing home was also charged with cheating Medicare and Missouri Medicaid, by submitting fraudulent claims for services that weren’t provided or were of no value.

Cathedral Rock of Texas pleaded guilty to felony health care fraud, and C. Kent Harrington, a majority owner in Forth Worth, entered a plea agreement that will require him to pay, along with Cathedral Rock, $1 million in criminal fines. Harrington and the nursing home company must also pay $628,000 to resolve civil allegations of fraudulent claims made to Medicare and Missouri Medicaid, as well as implement programs that protect nursing home residents from abuse and neglect in the future.

Continue reading "Nursing Homes and Operator Admit to Fraud and Negligence in 1.6 Million Settlement" »

As Maryland Nursing Home Negligence and Abuse Attorneys, we have been following the recent lawsuit filed against Caseyville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center—where a nursing home resident died after the staff at the center allegedly neglected to treat her multiple bedsores while she was a resident at the facility.

According to the lawsuit, Theresa Steiner was admitted to the nursing and rehabilitation center as a patient on December 12, 2008. She entered the home with pre-existing decubitus ulcers, or pressure sores— three on her buttocks that were stage II, and pressure sores that had developed on both heels after staying for a week at Anderson Hospital for abdominal bleeding.

One week later, Steiner's buttock ulcers had developed into stage IV bedsores, there were multiple sores on her heels, and she had developed sepsis, one of the greatest dangers of an advanced pressure sore—when bacteria enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout your body. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that progresses rapidly and can cause organ failure.

Steiner was taken to the hospital on December 19, 2008, and died on January 7, 2009 from sepsis and acute respiratory failure. Steiner’s son accuses the center of nursing home negligence—for failing to screen his mother bedsores properly before entry, for properly treating the bedsores, and for failing to alert Steiner’s doctor on the seriousness of her the bedsores to prevent further deterioration. According to the suit, the facility did not have a nurse on staff that specialized in wound care, and who was properly trained in treating pressure sores.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Lawsuit Accuses Nursing Home of Bedsore Negligence" »

In a previous blog from October, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys reported on a nursing home assault from earlier this year that shed light on the ongoing problem many nursing homes are facing today—on how to maintain nursing home safety for residents who share facilities with mentally ill patients and criminals with violent pasts.

In January of this year, a 69-year old female resident of Maplewood care nursing home in Elgin, Illinois was found assaulted and raped in her room, allegedly by 21-year old Christopher Shelton, a mentally ill patient from the second floor of the nursing home. Reports stated the Shelton was reported missing during the evening bed check, and was later found in the woman’s bathroom after the assault.

This week Shelton, who suffers from bipolar disorder, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault, and agreed to a sentence of 12 years in prison in exchange for the guilty plea of one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault— a Class X felony. Illinois law states that Shelton must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, or about 10 years. He will receive 335 days of credit from his time served in the county jail since he was arrested in January.

Before Shelton moved into the nursing home at the end of last year, the staff didn’t properly check his criminal background, or listen to the warnings from the previous nursing home’s director on his violent behavior. Shelton reportedly had a violent history including an aggravated battery conviction, as well as other aggression related arrests. The Chicago Tribune reported that Shelton was arrested last year three times for alleged offenses that all included nursing home violence. At Maplewood, officials reserve rooms on the nursing home’s second floor for the psychiatric patients—but the separation between floors was not safely protected or monitored, so Shelton allegedly easily found his way to the resident’s room on the first floor.

Continue reading "Mentally Ill Man Charged in Nursing Home Rape" »

A recent report that our nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys have been following gives an expert recommended list of ten top considerations for choosing nursing home care.

• Discuss with the resident what their goals and expectations are proactively, before the resident goes into the home. Also discuss the diagnosis with health-care providers to determine what kind of care is needed: from a nursing facility, to community based-care, long-term care, or other possible institution options.

• Always start looking for an establishment that is close to family and friends, so visitation is easy and accessible.

• Search the Nursing Home Compare Website, which lists Medicare-and Medicaid certified facilities with Five-Star ratings that compare national quality standards on short-term as well as long-term care.

• Always meet with the administrator, to discuss care planning, safety systems, wander alerts, specialized services, policies and the cost. Also ask about policies on physical and chemical restraints, as well as the nursing facilities’ history of bedsores or decubitus ulcers.

• Visit the home at least twice to check the level of care—both at busy times, as well as times when the staff is less busy. Try to witness the level of care during mealtimes, as well as early evenings, or just before a staff shift change.

Continue reading "Top Ten Important Considerations for Choosing a Nursing Home" »

In a related post from last week, our Maryland Nursing Home Injury Lawyers discussed the importance of researching the up to date results on recent inspections when choosing a nursing home in the state of Maryland, especially with regard to complaints and deficiencies in homes that can lead to nursing home negligence, abuse or personal injury.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) stresses the importance of having nursing home performance data available for consumers, and how important it is to rate facilities based on recent inspections. Many states electronically post “report cards” of various types for consumers to access.

The Maryland Health Care Commission’s Maryland Nursing Home Guide is a rating resource that covers specific information on facilities such as quality measures, deficiencies, recent state inspections, and bed counts, as well as family satisfaction surveys. The guide offers a look at more than 200 nursing facilities and 34 Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). This service allows visitors to compare and contrast information on each facility, review quality measures, inspections results, and quality indicators.

The Nursing Home Compare website ranks around 16,000 Medicare and Medicaid-certified national nursing homes on a Five-Star Quality rating system that compares the quality standards on short-term as well as long-term care. The U.S. Nursing Home Information & Registry from Member of the Family.net also reports on 16,000 homes by the state, for survey ratings, complaint information and reports of repeat violations.

Continue reading "Inspection Reports in Nursing Homes—Preventing Personal Injury" »

As Maryland Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys, we have been following the recent nursing home neglect case ruling against Rosewood Care Center on behalf of Catherine Taylor, a patient who died in 2004 at the age of 88 from bed sore complications during her stay at the Illinois facility.

Taylor was a resident of Rosewood Care Center, in July and August of 2004, and was taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in August for a treatment to remove bedsores and treat bone infections that developed, according to the suit, as a result of being confined to her bed without proper nursing home care. She had allegedly developed a bedsore on her backside that was the size of a fist, and died in December 2004 at the age of 88 from complications of the bedsore infection.

On Monday of this week, a jury ruled against Rosewood Care Center, and awarded the family of Catherine Taylor $51,000 in damages. The center is also responsible for covering all attorney fees over the past five years of the lawsuit.

Bedsores, also known as decubitus ulcers or pressure sores, are a major problem in nursing homes, causing injury and death to nearly one million Americans every year. When residents are left sitting or lying in the same position for long periods of time, the skin starts to break down, causing pressure sores which can lead to bone infections, or osteomyelitis—an inflammation of the bones caused by a bacteria that enters the body through the wound and attacks the bone. Once the bone becomes infected, an abscess can develop, resulting in the loss of blood supply that hinders the natural healing ability of the body.

Osteomyelitis can be treated with antibiotics, yet some cases require surgery to remove the dead tissue, bone, and fluid from the area around the bed sore with a scalpel, so the skin can heal. The mortality rate reported for residents with osteomyelitis is extremely high.

Continue reading "Jury Finds Nursing Home Negligent in Resident's Death" »

In a previous post from this week, our Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys reported on basic planning tips for families searching for the right nursing home environment that promotes proper care, protects the health and safety of the resident, and is free from nursing home neglect and abuse.

One recommendation was for families to search Nursing Home Compare, the database from the from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS), that ranks around 16,000 Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes in the country on a Five-Star Quality Rating.

The Five-Star Quality Rating was developed to help residents, families, and caregivers compare nursing facilities by giving them a snapshot of the current status of health inspections, staffing for each nursing home, and quality measures. This rating system developed as a direct result of the continued efforts made since the nursing home reform law enacted in 1987, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act (OBRA ’87).

The Nursing Home Compare Website uses this quality rating system to give each nursing home a score ranging from one to five stars. One star gives a much below average quality ranking, whereas a five star rating gives a much above average quality ranking.

Continue reading "Rating Nursing Homes—The Five-Star Quality Rating System" »

In a recent nursing home abuse case that our Maryland attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC have been following, a 56-year mentally disabled resident in Minnesota was physically abused by being force-fed against her will.

According to a Fox 9 News report, an employee from the Homeward Bound Group Home was charged last week for allegedly physically abusing the nursing home resident by forcing her to eat against her will. The Minnesota Health Department investigated the case over a period of four months, and concluded that the resident—who is mentally retarded, has cerebral palsy, and swallowing problems—was forced to eat by an employee, even when she was not hungry.

According to the Minnesota Health Department report, Alemayehu Seboka Abdi, placed his hand on the victim’s head while he would force-feed her, even when she nodded that she did not want food, and tried to stop the employee. He was reportedly seen retelling the story to other employees and laughing about his forceful behavior.

In an incident from May of this year, Abdi allegedly took the woman outside in the cold, wearing only a t-shirt, and forced her to eat— pushing her head back, forcing large quantities of food down her throat with a spoon that was larger than what the resident would normally use to eat. Abdi would then let her head drop forward.

By shaking her head in response to questions asked by investigators, the resident communicated that it was very difficult to breathe during the force-feeding. Because she had swallowing difficulties, she claimed that it was necessary for her to take small bites to eat. She told investigators that the physical abuse left her feeling scared, upset and sad for a week.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Worker Charged with Neglect and Force-feeding" »

In recent nursing home patient safety and technology news, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence Lawyers have been following the required development of electronic point-of-care devices, to be installed in Vestal Nursing Center, along with eight other nursing homes in New York. This nursing home healthcare technology development was as part of a deal made with the state Attorney General’s Office, after 14 employees were convicted of criminal charges for falsely testifying that they had provided appropriate care to patients—and were caught on a surveillance camera doing otherwise.

In 2005, Feliz Ortiz suspected that his father, a dementia patient resident at the Rochester nursing home wasn’t getting the proper care he deserved. His family was visiting him every day, and suspected serious nursing home abuse and neglect. After the state Department of Health checked the records of his care and suspected that the records were doctored, the state Attorney’s Office installed a hidden surveillance camera in his father’s room—to investigate of the level of care being provided.

The video results corroborated with Ortiz’s suspicions—his father wasn’t being turned every two hours to prevent bed sores, wasn’t being hydrated properly, and was left for hours on end lying in his own waste, while the nursing home caregivers claimed to be treating him properly. Employees were found allegedly sleeping, smoking, watching movies and not providing the promised nursing home care.

Point-of-care technology uses electronic devices to record services at health-care facilities, like the turning of a bed-ridden patient and the dispensing of patient medication in actual time. The new system of technology will also allow the nursing home caregivers to record information about the residents in their rooms, instead of having to walk back and forth to the nursing station—a process that will save time spent on paperwork, and give more time to the patients.

Electronic records will then be created for patients’ medical charts with the necessary information that can be easily accessible in the future after the implementation of electronic medical records occurs—where patient information for doctor visits, nursing homes, and critical care-facilities are all available electronically.

Continue reading "Negligence Lawsuit Demands Nursing Homes Install Patient Care Devices" »

As Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys in Maryland, and the Washington D.C. area, we have been following a recent lawsuit, where the daughter of a schizophrenic woman is suing a nursing home for neglecting to take proper care of her mother—who was impregnated under the nursing home’s care.

Tekia Daniels filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against Monroe Pavilion Health and Treatment Center, after her mother Felicia Daniels became pregnant. According to Daniels, the staff claimed that her mother had engaged in consensual sex, and that many patients have relationships in the center.

Daniels claimed that her mother is mentally unstable, incapable of consent, and unable make decisions for herself—that it is the job of the nursing home facility to protect her from the sexual advances of others and from sexual activity. The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $50,000.

According to the suit, the long-term residential care facility for the mentally ill has violated the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act by neglecting to prevent a resident or employee from engaging in sexual actions with the patient. Under the act, a resident is not deprived of any of the benefits, rights or privileges guaranteed by law, by the Constitution of the State of Illinois, or the by the Constitution of the United States—based on the status of being a resident of a facility.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Negligence Causes Pregnancy—Daughter of Schizophrenic Resident Sues" »

In a previous post from this week, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers discussed the serious problem of Decubitus ulcers in nursing homes—pressure sores or bedsores that develop when immobile residents go for too long without being moved.

If a decubitus ulcer is not detected, the nursing home injury can become infected and progress to a more advanced stage, causing extensive damage to the deeper structures under the skin. These infections are often very difficult and painful for nursing home residents, as they take a long time to heal, and can cause complications, or even death.

One serious complication that comes from pressure sores is blood poisoning, or septicemia. Many residents also develop osteomyelitis, an inflammation of the bones that is caused by bacteria that enters the body through the open wound and attacks the bone. If not treated, osteomyelitis can spread into the bone marrow and the surrounding joints. The mortality rate for people with osteomyelitis is extremely high.

Treatment of serious decubitus ulcers may include drying out the wound, or surgical debridement, where a surgeon uses a scalpel to remove the dead tissue, bone and fluid from the area around the bedsore, and administers systemic antibiotics to the resident.

Surgical debridement of the bedsore can also be accompanied by ‘flap reconstruction’ to cover the open wound with healthy tissue to avoid infection. The surgery is done to make sure that the skin is free of dead or damaged tissue, to promote healing. This reconstruction is considered a last resort in cases involving advanced stage bedsores, as it has an extremely high complication rate, and recovery from the procedure is often slow and painful.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Injury and Wrongful Death from Decubitus Ulcer Complications" »

Decubitus ulcers, also known as bedsores or pressure sores, are a serious problem in nursing homes today—a leading cause of nursing home injury that affects nearly one million Americans every year. Decubitus ulcers develop when the blood supply to a resident’s skin is cut off, due to unrelieved pressure on the skin, from staying too long in one position without movement or shifting weight.

All stages of decubitus ulcers are preventable, as long as nursing home residents are provided with appropriate care. Elderly residents in nursing homes who are immobile or confined to wheelchairs are some of the most vulnerable to pressure ulcers, and the frequency of these sores can be seen as an indicator of the quality of care in many nursing home facilities. Many advanced decubitus ulcer cases are often the result of nursing home abuse and neglect, and can end in wrongful death.

According to data from the National Nursing Survey from 2004, one out of ten nursing home residents in this country have pressure sores. Of the study’s 1.5 million nursing home residents evaluated, 159,000, or 11%, had pressure ulcers. Around sixty thousand people die each year from complications of some of the more advanced stages of bedsores.

When residents are left lying or sitting for long periods of time in the same position, their skin begins to break down, and pressure sores can quickly develop. Pressure ulcers commonly develop over bony areas that are close to the skin and are less padded by muscle and fat—like heels, ankles, hips, tailbones, shoulders, elbows, backs, and the back of the head. One small irritation can quickly develop into a crater that is painful, difficult to heal, and can become a life-threatening nursing home injury.

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In yesterday's post, our Maryland Nursing Home Injury Attorneys wrote about the difficulty of maintaining resident safety in nursing homes that take in mentally ill patients and violent criminals. Elderly nursing home residents who are often weak and unable to protect themselves from the violent actions of younger, mentally ill patients.

In the Chicago Tribune's ongoing reporting on security and safety reform in nursing homes, today's article recommends a serious overhaul of nursing home operations, to better protect elderly residents in nursing homes from the violence of mentally ill residents and convicted felons.

Nursing homes have become known as “dumping grounds” for young and middle aged individuals with mental illnesses, according to U.S. data and Associated Press interviews. The placement of mentally ill patients into nursing homes in this country has increased by 41% between the years of 2002 and 2008, as well as the incidents of nursing home crime and violence.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), released data earlier this year that nearly 125,000 individuals with mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar disorder lived in U.S. nursing homes last year—many of whom moved directly into homes from jail cells, shelters and psychiatric wards.

According to the Associated Press, many states are mixing the mentally ill with the elderly because the federal government will help pay for resident care under Medicaid regardless of their age—as long as the nursing home’s mentally ill residents stay under 50%.

Continue reading "Violence in Nursing Homes—Protecting Elderly Residents from Criminals and the Mentally Ill" »

A brutal nursing home assault in Illinois recently shed light on an ongoing problem many nursing homes are facing today—how to maintain resident safety in homes that take in violent mentally ill patients and criminals.

In January of this year, a 69-year old female resident of Maplewood care nursing home in Elgin, Illinois was found crying and terrified in her room, moaning in pain. According to police reports, 21-year old Christopher Shelton, a mentally ill patient from the second floor, had assaulted the woman—raping her, as she begged him to stop.

Although psychiatric patients are not an inherent threat in homes, some residents have criminal records, and if not carefully assessed, treated or monitored, can be a big concern for resident safety. At Maplewood, officials had reserved rooms on the nursing home’s second floor for psychiatric patients—but the separation between floors was not safely protected or monitored.

When Shelton, who suffers from bipolar disorder, moved into the nursing home, he had a violent history including an aggravated battery conviction, as well as other aggression related arrests. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, Shelton was arrested three times last year for alleged offenses that all included nursing home violence.

Before Shelton entered the home at the end of last year, the facility staff didn’t properly check his criminal background, or listen to the director’s warnings from the previous nursing home on his violent and disturbing behavior. After the resident assault and injury, facility officials told the state investigators that Shelton and the woman had been involved in “consensual” sex—a suggestion that the emergency room staff, the prosecutors as well as the police vehemently rejected.

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As Maryland Nursing Home Injury Attorneys, we have been following the Chicago Tribune article published yesterday about an epidemic of unnecessary and dangerous drugging going on in nursing homes—causing nursing home injury and threatening the lives of elderly residents.

The report details that many vulnerable elderly residents in nursing homes are being given strong psychotropic drugs that they neither need or want—leaving them with dangerous side effects like tremors, severe lethargy, and a high possibility for falls or wrongful death.

This review of more than 40,000 federal and state inspection reports found that a wide variety of nursing homes ranging from high end facilities to run down centers, are in violation for improperly treating patients with psychotropic drugs. The violations included chemical restraint, unnecessary drug administering, dosages exceeding safety standards, and cases where dosages led to nursing home resident falls.

Since 2001, the Tribune identified 1,200 nursing home violations that involved psychotropic medications. These infractions reportedly affected 2,900 residents, although the actual statistics are likely to be far higher, as regulation inspections are only enforced once every 15 months.

Congress passed landmark laws protecting patients from unnecessary drugs in 1987—and since then, it is unlawful for facilities to give psychotropic drugs to patients without a doctor’s orders, patient’s consent and treatment justification.

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In a tragic case that our Maryland-based Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers have been following, Everett Care & Rehabilitation Center, a Washington state nursing home, is being sued for abuse and negligence, for failing to care for 97-year old resident Charles Bradley—who suffered from an untreated penile infection that allegedly caused his death.

Bradley entered Everett Care & Rehabilitation when he was 93, in the winter of 2004. He lived in the nursing home until two weeks before his death, in March 2008, when Bradley was suddenly taken to the emergency room. Upon admittance to the hospital, doctors discovered a life threatening penile infection that caused his genitals to disintegrate, leaving nothing but a gaping wound. The court documents claim that Bradley’s wound went untreated for months in the nursing facility, and developed into severe penile cancer. Bradley died 18 days after entering hospital.

The lawsuit, filed this month by Bradley’s son in Snohomish County Superior Court, claims that the nursing home allowed the injury to continue to develop for months, without properly caring for Bradley, or reporting the wound to the doctors or family—violating the center’s promise to care and protect for elderly residents. Bradley’s family trusted that the center would provide him with the best care as promised, but they claim the nursing home neglected Bradley’s basic daily needs.

According to the suit, in November 2007, the staff at the nursing home noticed skin breakdown while changing Bradley’s diaper and reported the problem to a care manager, who failed to alert his doctor. Four months after this report, Bradley’s skin continued to break down in his genital region, and he started to lose large amounts of weight. Two weeks before he was taken to the hospital, the staff allegedly reported the skin breakdown one more time, but the managers again ignored the problem. By the time he reached the hospital on March 13, 2008, he was diagnosed with an infected wound, that doctors later diagnosed as severe penile cancer.

Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) began investigating Bradley’s case before his death, and issued a citation to the center for failure to follow the quality of care standards required by law. The DSHS claimed that there was no evidence that the home had ever reported Bradley’s condition to the family, the facility’s doctor, or their social services department—necessary for a life-saving intervention. The center was cited and forced to take corrective action.

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Our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC, have recently read a study on nursing home residents with advanced dementia, published in the October 15, 2009, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. According to the report, dementia is not just a disease of the mind, it is a physical illness as well—a leading cause of death in this country, and should be recognized as a terminal illness that requires high quality palliative care.

The report, led by Dr. Susan L. Mitchell from the Hebrew Senior Life Institute for Aging Research in Boston, studied 323 nursing home residents with advanced dementia and their families, in 22 different homes over a period of 18 months. The goal was to better understand the clinical complications of dementia and the families’ comprehension of the dementia prognosis, in order to make the right decisions in patient placement—reducing pain, suffering and nursing home injury and neglect in the final stages of life.

Patients with advanced dementia experience severe memory loss, have difficulty speaking, are restricted to the bed, and are totally dependent on others for care. The report argues that because dementia is consistently not recognized as a terminal illness, patients with advanced dementia are not being diagnosed as high risk for death, and are receiving poor palliative or nursing home care.

Mitchell argues that families need to clearly understand the prognosis of advanced dementia as a terminal illness, and the complications to expect, so patients can receive proper advanced care—like access to a high quality hospice, or improved skilled nursing home services. The goal, states the report, is to avoid patient suffering and pain, as well as nursing home negligence, due to lack of skilled nursing home services and supervision.

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Our Maryland Nursing Home Injury Lawyers have been following a recent case in which Ruxton Health, a local nursing facility in Virginia, has been charged with another wrongful death lawsuit—the third nursing home injury lawsuit from this year.

Bob Wiggins filed the civil lawsuit last week on behalf of his mother, Lorina Wiggins, who had been under Ruxton Heath’s care for a year when she was brought to the emergency room in March 2008 with deeply infected bedsores. Wiggins, who was 84 at the time, died a week later from complications of these wounds.

This nursing home injury lawsuit claims that one of the seven bedsores that Wiggins developed over the year that she was cared for at Ruxton Health, had become so deeply infected that in the course of three months it exposed her ankle bone.

Bob Wiggins claims in the suit that he was never informed about his mother’s infected bedsores that advanced to a deadly degree during final few months of her life. When he was unable to visit the facility in person, he claims that when we could call to check on her, he was incorrectly reassured by the Ruxton staff that she was doing “fine” and had “no problems”.

When Lorina Wiggins entered the nursing home, she was at high risk for skin breakdown, and according to the suit needed specific nursing home care to prevent any sores or lesions from developing, which included being physically moved every few hours.

The lawsuit is seeking $35 million from Ruxton Health and former nursing home administrator Sue Myatt.

The Wiggins case is the third nursing home wrongful death lawsuit brought against Ruxton Health this year. The first wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Lillian Funn—who died from skin ulcers and multiple nursing home bedsores in 2008.

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As Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers, we support the rights for Maryland residents to receive quality care, and be protected with treatment that is free from criminal acts, abuse, and the kind neglect that often results in injury or wrongful death. Under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, all residents living in nursing homes or long-term care living facilities are entitled to receive this quality of care and attention in an environment that improves and maintains their mental and physical health.

Nursing home abuse and neglect occurs when a facility fails to protect and care for the residents, by paying proper attention to situations that could cause harm or pain. In an effort to educate families and consumers, and protect residents' rights, the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR) publishes a consumer fact sheet aimed to prevent future nursing home abuse and neglect violations. The NCCNHR reports these common violations:

• Poor positioning of the body, which can lead to bedsores and frozen joints.

• Lack of cleanliness, hygiene, and proper toileting—causing incontinence, falls, bedsores.

• Resident malnutrition and dehydration

• Not assisting residents with walking, which can lead to immobility, and falls

• Abuse from a staff member, visitor, or intruder—which can involve using physical force in feeding, while administering medicine, or while moving a resident

• Ignoring, antagonizing, or depriving a resident of adequate needs, which can lead to emotional and psychological abuse.

• Inappropriate sexual touching or forcing residents into performing sexual acts

Other common nursing home injury violations to be aware of include failure to supervise residents adequately, administer proper medication to each resident, and provide patients who are mentally ill or who have dementia with special attention and care.

Continue reading " Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Violations" »