Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa has asked the Iowa Legislature to pass a bill requiring nursing homes to notify residents when a registered sex offender moves into the facility. Courts often order individuals into nursing home care after a plea or conviction, and some of those individuals must also go on the sex offender registry under the same order. Iowa officials estimate that fifty to fifty-five registered sex offenders currently reside in nursing homes in the state. Discussion of nursing home abuse and neglect often focuses on the action, or inaction, of nursing home staff, but residents may also face the risk of abuse from fellow residents.

The governor’s proposal arose from an incident last year at a nursing home in Pomeroy. An 83 year-old male convicted sex offender suffering from dementia who suffered from dementia assaulted a 95 year-old female resident. After the man was released from a facility designated for sex offenders, a judge had ordered him to be placed in the nursing home.

Shortly after the incident in Pomeroy, the governor convened a group to review laws relating to sex offenders in long-term care facilities. The proposed legislation is based on their recommendations. The governor announced the bill during his weekly radio address on January 9. In addition to notification of other residents or their representatives, nursing homes would have to create a written safety plan for use when a sex offender resides in the facility. He suggested that facilities might choose to designate an area to focus on sex offender residents, comparing the idea to wings designated for Alzheimer’s patients and other conditions.

The bill creates a delicate question about how to balance the right of nursing home residents to a safe living environment with the right of convicted sex offenders to also get an appropriate level of care. Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable of people, and the notion that they might face abuse by a fellow resident with a possible history of abuse seems to shock the conscience. Once convicted sex offenders have served their punishments, however, they ostensibly have the same rights to nursing care as anyone else. Governor Branstad acknowledged the need to balance the interests of resident and public safety with the right to receive care, particularly when a person has been committed to care via a court order.

Continue reading "Proposed Bill Would Require Notification of Nursing Home Residents on Sex Offender Registry" »

A Kansas nurse accused of tampering with nursing home medications pleaded guilty to one count of adulteration of a drug and one count of consumer product tampering in a Topeka federal court at the end of November. Melanie Morrison admitted to diluting morphine solutions at the nursing home in Salina where she worked. The nursing director noticed that the caps had been removed from several vials of medication, and that the rubber covers had puncture marks indicative of a hypodermic needle. Morrison would mix sodium chloride into morphine sulfate, which reduced the painkiller’s effectiveness. She would also outright replace morphine vials with sodium chloride and take the morphine home. This put patients at risk, as some elderly patients can react very badly to sodium chloride solution. She admitted that she acted with “reckless disregard and extreme indifference” to the risks to the patients in her care.

Morrison’s plea deal could result in a prison sentence of up to three years. She has also surrendered her nursing license and agreed never to work in health care again. Prosecutors are asking that she go into a treatment program for drug addiction. If she completes the program, she could qualify for early release from prison.

The Kansas City Star notes that Morrison’s case illustrates an alarming problem with Kansas’ nursing regulations. According to news reports, Morrison had previously lost a job at a Wichita hospital for stealing the painkiller Percocet. Within months, she had a new job at a nursing facility with full access to the drug supply. The Star notes other similar cases. A nurse convicted of stealing patients’ drugs at an Emporia nursing home later found a job at a home in Topeka. There, she was caught diluting a patient’s painkiller with tap water. A nurse who diluted morphine solutions for several patients in Halstead had a previous conviction for prescription forgery.

The problem, according to the Star, is that Kansas law does not require nursing homes to conduct background checks on nurses and other medical professionals. The state nursing board obtained authority to conduct background checks on new nursing licensees, but not renewals, a mere three years ago. Nursing homes and hospitals therefore have no effective means if learning of any criminal or drug abuse history of their nurses. With regard to employees who regularly handle powerful narcotic medications, with patients in delicate medical condition, this would be useful information for nursing home administrators to have.

Continue reading "Drug Tampering by Nurses Reveals Problems in Regulation and Hiring" »

Power outages across the east coast in the wake of Hurricane Irene left many Maryland nursing homes without electricity for five to eight days in late August. In all, about 800,000 people experienced power loss due to the hurricane, which caused billions of dollars of property damage and cost at least one life. We have previously commented on the risks posed to nursing home residents in Maryland from flooding and other natural disasters. The extent and length of recent power outages create perhaps an even greater risk to resident safety, considering the dependence of so many on medical devices and monitoring equipment. An overhaul of power restoration procedures, as well as an examination of nursing homes’ plans for dealing with power outages, are crucial to protecting the safety of nursing home residents.

Maryland citizens, nursing home advocates, and nursing home administrators are all calling on the state to review the system of power restoration after natural disasters. Power outages forced closures of businesses and schools across the state, and made it difficult for people to both evacuate and return home. The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), the state agency tasked with regulating utility companies, has opened an investigation into the performance of Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) during and after the storm. BGE created a stir when it announced that the $81 million it spent restoring power may lead to higher rates on services in the future. The PSC must approve any rate increase.

BGE and other utilities use a priority system to manage power restoration, focusing first on public safety, including hospitals, and critical infrastructure such as pumping stations. Nursing home representatives and others are asking that nursing homes receive the same priority as hospitals, since they serve very similar functions for their residents. A nursing home administrator testified to the PSC that “today’s nursing homes closely resemble hospitals in caring for medically complex patients, using the same type of equipment, like ventilators, G-tubes, breathing machines and dialysis machines.” In an order issued on October 31, the PSC has asked BGE and other utility companies to draft new implementation plans based on the experience of Irene, to collaborate in finding a way to reliably inform customers of when to expect power restoration, and to notify the PSC of the protocols used to determine priority for power restoration. The PSC hopes to create consolidated procedures for future hurricanes and other disasters.

Continue reading "Maryland Nursing Homes Demand Higher Priority for Power Restoration During Outages" »

Several major storms have hit the east coast of the U.S. this year, sending rains and floods to Maryland. September saw substantial flooding in parts of the state because of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, with rising flood waters washing away bridges and roads and threatening major population areas. Towns along the Susquehanna River in particular faced dangerous flooding. Residents of a nursing home in Havre de Grace, where the river meets Chesapeake Bay, had to evacuate in early September when floods threatened to engulf their facility. In all, 165 residents evacuated to other nearby facilities. This raises the question of how nursing homes can best ensure residents’ safety in such dire situations.

A nursing home in Chestertown, Maryland, located across the Susquehanna River from Havre de Grace, took in some of the evacuated residents, according to the Chestertown Spy. Administrators at the Chestertown facility learned of an SOS to all area facilities through Lifespan, a mid-Atlantic network of senior care providers. They took in sixteen evacuees, who remained at the facility for about three days, arriving on a Thursday night and returning to Havre de Grace Monday morning. Fortunately, the Susquehanna did not flood enough to threaten the nursing home, and residents were able to return without injury or serious incident.

Who has responsibility for the safety and well-being of residents during such emergency situations? Such determinations depend heavily on the individual circumstances. The basic facts on the ground may prevent well-meaning caregivers from providing adequate care, but a fundamental obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure safety remains. Even in a critical evacuation, caregivers must take all steps possible to provide necessary care. Residents needing a high level of care, including ongoing monitoring and medication, may face significant risks in emergencies, and nursing home staff must do whatever is reasonably within their power to provide for those needs. This usually involves transfer to another facility that can provide needed care. The facility taking custody of residents takes on responsibility for their well-being, but residents’ home facility still bears responsibility for seeing that they make it somewhere that can adequately care for them.

The situation in Maryland turned out well, but not all recent disasters have had positive outcomes. The most famous example, of course, is 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Thirty-two residents of a nursing home in St. Bernard Parish died when flood waters hit their home after the hurricane made landfall. While many heroic stories of rescues and escapes came out of that area, residents of one home simply did not evacuate in time, with tragic results.

Continue reading "Caring for Nursing Home Residents During Natural Disasters" »

A home healthcare service provider based in Columbia, Maryland, Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc., has entered into settlement agreements with the federal government and several state governments to resolve allegations of fraudulent reimbursement claims. The federal case, which involved both civil and criminal complaints, accused the company of defrauding public programs like Medicaid and the Veterans’ Affairs program out of over $61 million since at least 2003. The complaints alleged a nationwide scheme that involved fraudulent billings to government programs, fraudulent documentation of billing records, and false statements to government officials.

Maxim provides home health care services across the country, which includes full-time homecare services to adult and elderly patients. The company discusses the importance of care planning and home safety on its website. It has a national reach, with hundreds of offices across most U.S. states. Maxim’s services potentially involve the same level of care and responsibility as in the nursing home environment, where the patient becomes fully reliant on the caregiver for support. While it does not provide inpatient care for the elderly, the case demonstrates how a facility can come to place other concerns above the best interests and well-being of its patients, a concern that is always present for nursing home residents.

The federal government’s case against Maxim alleged violations of the False Claims Act, a federal statute first passed in 1863 after widespread fraud by government contractors during the Civil War. Congress has amended the law several times, most recently in 2009 with passage of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, and in 2010 with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Generally speaking, the statute prohibits knowingly making false statements or presenting false records in order to receive a payment or benefit from the federal government. Some states also have similar false claims statutes protecting state-level public programs.

Continue reading "Maryland Home Health Care System Settles Medicaid Fraud Allegations" »

October is Long-term Care Residents’ Rights Month, a time to celebrate the rights and dignity of people living in nursing homes. Thanks to strong legislation and regulations, nursing home residents have a legal guarantee of certain protections against abuse and neglect. Residents do not give up their rights as adult citizens solely by virtue of entering a nursing home environment. All nursing homes participating in Medicaid and Medicare must respect the rights covered by this law.

Congress passed the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act after a study conducted by the Institute of Medicine found alarming rates of inadequate care, abuse, and neglect in nursing homes around the country. The Institute recommended a wide range of reforms that became law as part of a budget bill. The law aims to protect the physical, mental, and psychosocial wellness of nursing home residents by requiring nursing homes to provide certain services and creating a “Resident’s Bill of Rights.” Nursing homes must comply with the law in order to remain eligible to accept Medicare and Medicaid payments. Laws passed in 2010 expand on the rights protected by the 1987 law.

Nursing homes are required by this law to provide each resident with a personalized comprehensive care plan, along with periodic assessments of their care. They must provide nursing and social services, as well as rehabilitation and the ability to dispense prescription medications. Facilities with more than 120 beds should employ a full-time social worker to assist residents.

The Residents’ Bill of Rights lists numerous rights protected by federal law. These include:
- Freedom from abuse, neglect, or restraint;
- Privacy;
- Dignity;
- A clean and safe environment;
- Accommodation of particular medical and other needs;
- Communication and visitation with others;
- Participation in one’s care plan and frequent updates regarding one’s health condition;
- Complaint without fear of retribution;
- Control of one’s own finances, if possible; and
- Refusal of treatment when desired.

The Nursing Home Reform Act created an enforcement procedure that begins with routine inspections by state governments to review a nursing home’s certification. Surveyors may also investigate specific complaints or allegations, reviewing the amount of danger faced by residents and the likelihood that the alleged incident might occur again. One serious consequence of non-compliance with the law involves loss of Medicare and Medicaid eligibility. The law allows penalties ranging from remedial training for staffers to state management of the nursing home or outright termination of the home’s provider agreement with the state.

Continue reading "October is Long-term Care Residents’ Rights Month in Maryland and around the Country" »

Recently, our Baltimore nursing home abuse blog discussed the financial abuse of elders--a hugely under reported problem affecting around 3.5 million seniors around the country every year.

In recent nursing home abuse lawsuit news, a 68-year-old retired preschool teacher has sued a Seal Beach nursing home for elder abuse, alleging that as a resident, she was chemically restrained with drugs against her will, while the nursing home staff tried to take control of her retirement income.

According to the lawsuit, Marsha Davis lived in her own home until November of 2010, and suffered from many health issues, including diabetes. After collapsing at her home In the fall of 2011, Davis was reportedly hospitalized and then transferred to the Country Villa nursing home, for a three-month stay.

Davis alleges that while residing at the home, she was medicated with psychotropic drugs for chemical restraint against her will—allegations that were reportedly found to be true by state investigators in February. The lawsuit claims that after she was medicated to the point of being entirely disorientated, the nursing home stated that she was suffering from "cognitive impairment” and tried to collect her Social Security payments.

Although Davis has no immediate family members to act as an advocate on her behalf, a friend of hers reportedly intervened, and the medication was stopped. Davis was later transferred to another home where she remains today.

Continue reading "Former Schoolteacher Sues Nursing Home For Elder Abuse" »

As our Baltimore, Maryland accident lawyer blog recently reported, the family of an elderly nursing home resident whose wrongful death lead to a nursing home abuse and negligence lawsuit, was awarded $91.5 million earlier this month, after a Charleston, West Virginia jury found Heartland of Charleston nursing home and its corporate owners guilty of negligence—a verdict that the nursing home owners are likely to appeal.

According to the lawsuit, in September of 2009, Tom Douglas placed his mother Dorothy, who suffered from dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease among other conditions, in Heartland of Charleston nursing home temporarily—until there was room for her in a nearby facility that specialized in Alzheimer’s disease healthcare and treatment.

Before placing Douglas in the home, her son claimed that his mother had lived with he and his family, experiencing improved health conditions that included walking, speaking and even recognizing her own family members.

Three weeks after Tom Douglas placed his 87-year old mother into the nursing home he reportedly found out that she was confined to a wheelchair, and suffered from malnutrition, and dehydration. By the time she was transferred to Heritage Center, the nursing home specializing in Alzheimer’s Disease healthcare, Douglas was reportedly unresponsive, had lost fifteen pounds and suffered such severe dehydration that she died the following day after her nursing home transfer.

Continue reading "Nursing Home to Appeal $91.5 Million Negligence and Wrongful Death Settlement" »

A fourth nursing home abuse and negligence lawsuit has been filed this week against the owners of a Kentucky nursing home complex, after a resident allegedly suffered from inadequate care when her healthcare rights and safety were reportedly threatened.

According to a news development from the Richmond Register that our Maryland nursing home attorneys have been watching, Viola Fields was a resident of Kenwood Health and Rehabilitation Center from the end of October until the beginning of December in 2010. James Rutherford, Fields’ guardian, claimed that Fields, who is incapacitated and not of a sound mind, did not receive the minimum standard of healthcare that should have been available to her as a vulnerable nursing home resident. Rutherford claims that the home violated her nursing home rights as a long-term care resident.

The lawsuit accuses Kenwood of nursing home negligence for failing to provide Fields with timely and accurate nursing home healthcare and medication assessments, proper resident supervision, necessary medical intervention, and from failing to prevent accidental injury. Kenwood is also being accused of medical and corporate negligence.

Rutherford claims that the nursing home’s wrongful conduct caused the rapid deterioration of Fields’ health and physical condition, and led to the direct development untreated pressure ulcers, wound infections, sepsis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and weight loss. The lawsuit accuses the home of acting with fraud, malice, gross negligence and reckless disregard for the health and safety of Fields and her rights as a nursing home resident. Rutherford claims that because of these injuries, Fields experienced physical impairment, and suffered embarrassment, along with incurring significant medical expenses.

Continue reading "Another Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit for Madison County Home" »

In a recent Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed a nursing home abuse incident involving a former nursing aide, where the worker reportedly removed the Fentanyl pain medication patch from an elderly resident in order to take the pain medication for her own personal recreational drug use.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a local hospice nurse has been charged in a similar elder abuse incident, after being caught on a surveillance video taking narcotic pain medication from an elderly person in the patient’s home.

A family member of the elderly patient reportedly contacted the police about the possibility of elder abuse and narcotic theft, after noticing that the pain killers that were prescribed to the patient were taken. The nurse, Amy M. Armstrong, was reportedly arrested after agents working for the Cherokee narcotics squad observed her taking the pills. After Armstrong was arrested, she was allegedly found to have other pills in her possession including anti-depressants and pain killers.

Armstrong was charged with two counts of elder abuse, two counts of felony theft for taking the medication, and two counts of possession of controlled substances.

The National Center on Elder Abuse states that elder abuse is the knowledge of or intentional act of negligence by a healthcare provider or any other person who causes harm or risk of great harm to a vulnerable senior in a physical, emotional, or sexual way, including exploitation and abandonment.

Continue reading "Hospice Nurse Charged for Elder Abuse and Narcotic Theft" »

In an effort to help seniors and families better evaluate and choose the right nursing home, the federal government has recently improved the Nursing Home Compare website, according to a recent article in Forbes.

As our Maryland nursing home injury blog has previously discussed, the Nursing Home Compare website is a web service listing around 16,000 Medicaid and Medicare-certified nursing homes around the county on a Five-Star Quality rating system—that compares and contrasts the quality standards on both short-term and long-term care.

The newly improved Nursing Home Compare website will reportedly feature 21 new criteria that help to measure the quality of care each resident will receive at different nursing homes and facilities around the country. The government will now include valuable experience from nursing home patients in both short-term and long-term care facilities, making it available on the website. It will make any complaints about a nursing home available, such as nursing home negligence or abuse, providing the necessary information.

The Nursing Home Compare’s new criteria will replace a set of 17 criteria and will focus on the specific and crucial issues affecting nursing home residents today, like pressure sores, infections, nursing home falls, pain, and general health and well being. The new criteria will also discuss the different percentages of nursing home residents who have experienced physical restraint, claim to have experienced pain that is severe to moderate, and who have been given vaccine for pneumonia.

Continue reading "Feds Help Families Choose the Right Nursing Home With Improved Website" »

In recent nursing home abuse news that our Baltimore, Maryland attorneys have been following, two former nursing aides in a Northern California nursing home were sentenced to a twenty day county jail sentence for allegedly organizing a prank for other workers by rubbing eight dementia nursing home patients with ointment to make them slippery to care for.

According to the Ukiah Daily Journal, Jennifer Louise Burton and Monica Rose Smith were found guilty of masterminding the nursing home abuse incident at Valley View Skilled Nursing facility in 2009, receiving a twenty day county jail sentence and two years probation for misdemeanor charges of elder abuse. Douglas Parker, Deputy District Attorney claimed that the elder abuse convictions and the fact that their nursing assistant licenses have been revoked by the state will ensure that the producers of this prank will on longer have the opportunity to work in a position of trust at a skilled nursing facility in the future.

The nursing home abuse incident reportedly occurred in November of 2009, and was investigated by then-Attorney General Jerry Brown, after he received an alert about the abuse by another nursing home operator. The company reportedly instantly fired six employees—Burton and Smith, along with three other defendants, all five of which have had their nursing home licenses revoked. Jared Buckley, the third nursing home defendant was also charged with a misdemeanor for elder abuse, and two other nursing assistants were found guilty of failing to report the elder abuse. The sixth nursing assistant had the charges against her dismissed.

The dementia patients were reportedly not physically injured or harmed in the prank, but they were unable to object to their mistreatment or stop it because of their mental and medical conditions and limitations.

Continue reading " Nursing Home Aides Found Guilty of Elder Abuse by Engaging in Prank with Dementia Residents" »

The Mid-Hudson News Network has recently reported that a series of nursing home abuse investigations by the New York State Attorney General and the State Office Medicaid Inspector General has led to the discharges and surrendering of allegedly abusive and negligent registered nurses in Liberty and Rhinebeck, New York.

In one investigation, a Long Term Care Community Coalition report claimed that registered nurse Myrna Siegel, who was working at the Sullivan County Adult Care Facility, physically and verbally abused patients by allegedly holding residents down and calling them offensive names. In another case Siegel reportedly threatened a resident with death who was unwilling to take his medication. After the investigation, Siegel reportedly gave up her license.

In two other nursing home abuse and neglect cases investigated by the New York State Attorney General, Stephen Thomas and Christopher Post, two certified nurse assistants at Ferncliff Nursing Home, were involved in the nursing home fall of a 94-year old patient who broke his arm during the nursing home transport. Thomas allegedly asked Post to claim that he helped move the patient with him, as he was alone when the nursing home injury occurred. Both aides received unconditional discharges and surrendered their CNA certificates.

As our Maryland nursing home injury attorney blog has reported previously, according to the National Counsel on Elder Abuse and the NCCNHR, types of nursing home abuse often found in homes and facilities include physical, verbal, emotional and psychological, as well as neglect, abandonment, intimidation or exploitation.

Continue reading "Physical and Verbal Abuse, Fall-related Injuries Investigated in New York Nursing Homes" »

In a recent Hartford County nursing home lawyer injury blog, our attorneys discussed the problem of falls in nursing homes, with over 300,000 individuals over the age of 65 experiencing a hip fracture every year, often leading to injury or even death.

According to a recent University of Maryland School of Medicine study, hip fractures continue to be a major challenge among older individuals and will continue to grow rapidly as our population ages. The study discusses the opportunity available for the medical community to help prevent falls, by intervening and taking precautions with the elderly population.

The study recommends the following interventions:

• Screening for and treating osteoporosis in elderly patients, especially elder men who are rarely diagnosed for osteoporosis, even after an osteoporotic fracture.
• Nutritional interventions have proven to be effective in preventing hip fractures, including the appropriate levels of vitamin D and calcium, as the majority of elderly individuals who are at-risk for falls and fractures have a deficiency in key nutrients.
• Behavioral exercises that include physical activity encouraging walking, weight-beating activity and resistance training have been linked to the reduction of nursing home falls and fractures.
• Other prevention strategies to decrease falls include reducing the number of medications, especially sedatives, sleeping pills, antihistamines, or psychoactive drugs, as well as modifying an elderly person’s home to avoid fall hazards, especially with a person who has previously fallen or is at-risk for falling.

The study hopes that by implementing fall-related interventions, future generations of elderly individuals will be better able to handle the traumatic falls without injury because of better bone health and strength. Also, the study states that with continuing research, experts will be able to identify new approaches to the treatment and rehabilitation of individuals who have suffered from hip fractures in order to improve quality of life and reduce the problem of fall-related injuries on individuals, their families and on society as a whole.

Continue reading "Prevention of Nursing Home Falls and Hip-Fractures in the Elderly" »

Our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys have been following a recent University of Maryland School of Medicine study, published in the American Geriatrics Society’s Clinical Geriatrics Journal, stating that over 300,000 people over the age of sixty-five in the United States will experience a hip fracture every year, making it the second leading cause of hospitalizations for older persons.

As our attorneys discussed in a related Maryland nursing home blog post, traumatic injuries involving nursing home falls are a major concern for elderly individuals and seniors in nursing homes around the country. Hip fractures are frequently the result of a nursing home fall or minor trauma, or when the bone becomes fragile and deteriorated to the point that it cannot hold the weight of the person. By the year 2040, it is estimated there will be an increase of 500,000 annual hip fractures.

Hip fractures challenge the quality of life for older adults, as it can lead to mortality, restricted mobility, and decline in strength, lean body mass, and bone mineral density, as well as depression and constant pain.

According to the study, 18-33 percent of elderly patients with fractured hips will die within one year of their hip fracture, with 13.5 percent dying within the first 6 months. The study also found that those who survive the hip fracture will experience a reduction of mobility, and will have problems functioning on their own, with only 50-60 percent of hip fracture patients recovering their pre-injury walking capabilities in the first year following the fracture. Many of the patients who were completely independent in their daily activities were found to have developed new dependencies after the fracture of the hip.

Continue reading "Elderly Hip Fractures and Nursing Home Falls" »

In a recent Anne Arundel County nursing home blog, our attorneys reported on the problem of pressure ulcers in nursing homes, and the importance of detecting and treating bedsores before they develop into serious infections that could be life threatening.

Bedsores, or decubitus ulcers, affect nearly one million people in the U.S. causing around 60,000 deaths due to complications from the advanced development of the ulcers, like osteomyelitis or sepsis.

As reported in a related Baltimore nursing home injury lawyer blog, pressure sores often form due to nursing home negligence, when immobile residents, or residents who have difficulty moving, are confined to their wheelchairs or beds, restricting the blood flow on certain areas of the body where there is prolonged pressure, causing a lack of circulation and skin breakdown.

Pressure sores often develop in four stages:

• Stage I: When the skin on an area of the body starts to break down, it becomes discolored and red. This is an important stage for healthcare practitioners to identify bedsores, especially with at-risk residents, as pressure sores can be prevented and reversed if caught in the early stages.
• Stage II: The discolored area of a developing bedsore turns into a blister or scrape that forms a sore, resulting from the skin's breakdown. If the sore does not receive immediate treatment, the skin will continue to deteriorate.
• Stage III: If the pressure sore is not cared for properly, the skin will continue to break down, causing significant loss of the soft tissue beneath the skin’s surface, forming a crater.
• Stage IV: The crater beneath the skin’s surface deepens, in many cases as large as a grapefruit or fist, where the muscle and bone along with tendons and joints, become severely damaged. Residents who suffer from Stage IV pressure sores often experience severe pain and frequent depression, and the massive ulcers can lead to illnesses like sepsis or osteomyelitis that can lead to wrongful death.

Continue reading "Detecting and Preventing the Four Stages of Bedsores" »

A Charleston nursing home has recently been sued in two separate wrongful death lawsuits, according to a news development that our Baltimore nursing home negligence attorneys have been watching, after two residents died at the home due to the home’s alleged negligence and abuse.

The Charleston Gazette reports that Teays Valley Center nursing home has been sued by the daughter of former resident Anoway Rose Smith, who according to the lawsuit, suffered from nursing home abuse and negligence that led to bedsores, weight loss due to dehydration and nursing home falls.

The lawsuit states that Smith resided at the nursing home four times between August 2009 and February 2010, during which time she sustained systemic nursing home abuse and neglect that led to her death on February 23, 2010.

In a second lawsuit filed against Teays Valley Center, the home is also being accused of causing the wrongful death of another resident. Shirley Osburn has filed the lawsuit, claiming that the her husband John Osburn died as a result of severe nursing home abuse and negligence while residing in the home.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued in Two Different Wrongful Death Lawsuits" »

In recent news that our Maryland nursing home neglect lawyers have been following, a Convalescent Center is being sued by the family of a resident, after alleged nursing home negligence led to the decline of health of the resident's health.

According to the lawsuit, Helen Hammes became sick after receiving improper care while she resided at the care facility. The lawsuit claims that the home failed to develop a care plan that was comprehensive, failed to transfer Hammes to another nursing facility, and neglected to monitor her bowel movement after showing signs of polyuria, a problem with the overproduction of urine. The home is also being accused of failing to follow the physician’s orders by performing a rectal exam, and failing to discontinue diuretic therapy even after the patient experienced dehydration.

The lawsuit claims several violations of the state Nursing Home Care Act, and claims that Hammes suffered physical pain and developed sepsis as a result of the improper care.

As our lawyers have reported in a previous Maryland nursing home blog post, sepsis is a deadly blood disease that develops when an infection in the body spreads quickly—causing blood poisoning, tissue damage and often organ failure. It is reported that every year, over 200,000 people die from different forms of sepsis. Sepsis is dangerous with nursing home residents, as their immune systems are often weak.

Continue reading "Resident Dies From Sepsis—Home Sued by Family for Negligence and Wrongful Death" »

Our Frederick County nursing home negligence lawyers have been following the recent announcement that a New York State jury has awarded over $5 million in monetary damages in a negligence case, after a patient at the Staten Island University Hospital and the Golden Gate Rehabilitation and Health Care Center reportedly developed severe and untreated bedsores that caused great suffering while staying at both facilities.

According to the lawsuit, Robert Messina. 63, was staying at the hospital and rehabilitation center after a brain dysfunction caused him to collapse in August of 2006. While a resident of both facilities, Messina reportedly developed pressure sores, or bedsores, that caused him to lose the ability to walk and led to a hip infection.

Messina claims in the lawsuit that the bedsores went untreated and developed into massive ulcers affecting his buttocks, genitals, mouth and ankles, leading to a spinal ulcer and a bone infection, or osteomyelitis.

In a related Baltimore nursing home injury lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the danger of bedsores in nursing homes, and the importance of detecting and treating pressure ulcers early, to prevent the life-threatening infections that can stem from the advanced stages of bed sores like sepsis, a blood infection, and osteomyelitis, a bacterial infection of the bone.

Continue reading "Hospital to Pay $5.4M in Bedsore Injury Lawsuit" »

In recent news that our Baltimore nursing home lawyers have been following, a nursing home resident's daughter in a Chicago-area home claims that the nursing home neglected to investigate symptoms of her mother’s illness—that allegedly lead to the resident’s wrongful death.

According to Jodine Murphy Sistek, who has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Sunny Hill Nursing Home, her mother, Pauline Benedict lived as a resident at the home for over three years. In the days before her death, Benedict reportedly complained to the nursing home staff of stomach pains that according to the wrongful death lawsuit, were symptoms of a bowel distention.

Sunny Hill is being accused of ignoring Benedict’s stomach pain complaints, neglecting to tell her physician or family about her medical condition, and failing to immediately send the resident to the hospital. Benedict was reportedly taken to the hospital on July 8, 2009, and died the following day.

If a Baltimore, Maryland nursing home fails to protect residents from developing symptoms that can result in personal injury or wrongful death, the nursing home could be held liable for nursing home negligence or wrongful death. At Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC, our attorneys represent victims and their families in the state of Maryland and the Washington D.C. area who have suffered from nursing home negligence and harm. Call our lawyers toll-free, at 1-800-654-1949, for a free consultation about your nursing home rights.

Continue reading "Daughter Sues Sunny Hill Nursing Home for Wrongful Death, Negligence" »

According to a recent Baltimore County nursing home lawyer blog entry, our attorneys discussed recent cases of nursing home abuse and negligence, where hidden cameras or “Granny Cams” were used in nursing homes by families who suspected that their loved ones were being treated with abuse or negligence, and didn’t trust the nursing home staff responsible for their healthcare and safety—filing lawsuits after the abuse was revealed on-camera.

In another recent nursing home abuse lawsuit, the children of an 87-year-old resident of a New Jersey nursing home have sued the home for wrongful death, after the children caught the their mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, being physically abused by a nurse on a hidden camera placed in her room—which they claim led to her death.

The resident's children reportedly suspected that their mother was being abused by her nurse, and installed a hidden camera to protect her health and safety. The camera footage reportedly showed the nursing home aide removing the victim’s oxygen mask and negligently, recklessly, and intentionally hitting and abusing her while she was supposed to be providing proper healthcare.

The victim’s family claim that this kind of abuse made their mother suffer, and violated her rights as a citizen and as a nursing home resident—as all nursing home residents under law are entitled to receive quality care and attention in an environment that improves and maintains the quality of their mental and physical health.

Continue reading "Family Installs “Granny Cam” to Catch Nursing Home Abuse—Sues for Wrongful Death" »

In a recent Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed a nursing home negligence lawsuit filed by the widow of a resident—who claims in the suit that while her husband was staying in the Madison Manor nursing home, his foot infection was not properly cared for, leading to the amputation of his leg, and wrongful death.

In a related report, the same Madison Manor nursing home has been sued again by the son of a former resident who says the home failed to properly care for his mother, leading to nursing home negligence and wrongful death.

In this second lawsuit, filed just a month after the home was sued for negligence, David Drury claims that the nursing home owners, operators and staff knew that the facility could not provide the minimum standard of healthcare that was promised to his mother, Lena McKinney, causing her to suffer an accelerated deterioration of health and physical condition that was far beyond what is caused by the normal process of aging.

Drury claims that while his mother was a resident of the home from December of 2008 to July of 2009, she experienced nursing home negligence that led to fluid imbalance and malnutrition, weight loss, poor hygiene, nursing home falls, and infections including urinary tract infections and sepsis that led to acute renal failure. As our Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog has reported in the past, sepsis is a serious blood infection in the body resulting in blood poisoning, and can be a lethal condition if it progresses rapidly, leading to organ failure.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued Again for Wrongful Death and Negligence" »

According to recent nursing home neglect news that our Charles County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following, a worker in a Saint Louis nursing home was found last week to have removed the Fentanyl drug pain patch from an 87-year-old resident, in order to take the drug herself.

Kathleen Lung, the 41-year-old nursing home worker, reportedly took the patch to ingest the pain medication for personal use. Fetanyl is an opioid pain relieving medication, often administered with patches, that as our nursing home abuse attorneys discussed in a recent Baltimore medication error blog is over 100 times stronger than morphine and should only be administered to opioid-tolerant people who have long-term and chronic pain, like cancer patients. The drug reportedly has effects on the body that are similar to heroin.

The other staff members reportedly noticed the removal of the nursing home resident’s patch and quickly replaced it. Lung was charged with criminal abuse and neglect of an elderly person, along with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

Our Maryland nursing home attorneys reported on a similar case of nursing home abuse and neglect recently after a nurse’s assistant was found to have removed medication from a fentanyl medication pain patch on a 92-year-old nursing home resident—also for personal drug use. The nurse’s aide poked holes with a pin in the resident’s fentanyl patch, and reportedly squeezed the drug out of the patch, stealing the drug by licking his fingers.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Worker Steals Resident’s Pain Patch for Pleasure" »

In a recent Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the prevalence of nursing home abuse in facilities across the country, and how families are fighting back by installing hidden cameras to ensure the safe and proper treatment of their loved ones.

In a recent nursing home abuse incident, the son of a 78-year-old resident installed a hidden camera in April of this year, after he feared that his mother was being mistreated at MetroHealth Medical Center’s nursing home care facilities in Ohio.

According to WKYC- Channel 3 News, Steve Piskor felt that his mother, who suffers from advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, was being abused by the staff. Piskor contacted administrators to discuss marks on her face, and the fact that when he approached her, she would raise her hands to protect her face in a fearful manner. He also reported incidents of negligence, after he found the heat off and the window open in his mother’s room in the middle of winter.

After MetroHealth reportedly ignored his complaints of abuse, Piskor installed the camera to prove that his mother was experiencing nursing home abuse and mistreatment. Although the camera was hidden inside a fan, Piskor put up a sign warning workers that a camera had been installed in the room.

Piskor said that it took only a few days to capture abuse—showing a nursing aide striking his mother’s face, violently shoving her into bed and the wheelchair, and pushing her face into the wall. Other footage reportedly showed another nurse’s aide hitting his mother, while another nursing home employee turned a blind eye to the abuse. Piskor kept the hidden camera rolling for two months to ensure that MetroHealth wouldn’t dismiss the nursing home abuse.

Continue reading " “Granny Cam” Footage Documents Nursing Home Abuse of Alzheimer Resident" »

Last month, the widow of a former resident at Madison Manor nursing home filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against the Kentucky home, after she claims the nursing home neglected to care for her husband’s foot infection—which led to leg amputation and wrongful death.

According to a Richmond Register report, that our Baltimore nursing home attorneys have been watching develop, Donna Anderson claims that while her husband Robert was a patient at the Richmond Health and Rehabilitation facility/Madison Manor from April to May 2009, the home contributed to the deterioration of her husband’s physical health condition—that was far beyond the normal process of aging.

Anderson claims in the suit that her husband, Robert, suffered severe pain and suffering, disability, mental anguish, and disfigurement while he was a resident in the home, as well as loss of personal dignity, because of the negligent care in the nursing home.

The lawsuit also states that Anderson’s infection spread because the home did not take the necessary steps to provide proper care and hygiene, as well as taking necessary precautions to prevent malnutrition. As our Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog has reported in the past, key nutrition and a healthy diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals can be an important step to the prevention, healing and recovery of nursing home infection. Anderson also claimed that her husband’s care records were not properly maintained, and that his symptoms and pain were not properly monitored.

Continue reading "Widow Files Lawsuit for Nursing Home Negligence and Wrongful Death" »

According to a recent Los Angeles Times report from the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, the United States needs to prepare itself for the growing number of elderly people with dementia and other mental illnesses—as the first group of baby boomers are turning 65 this year.

The problem, according to the report, is not due to an increase in mental illness with older people— but rather that 20% of this country’s population will be 65 and older by 2030. This will be a 12% increase from now.

The average life expectancy is also increasing with seniors, so elderly people who suffer from mental problems like dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease are living longer, with illnesses that can cause forms of behavior that are aggressive, with disorientation, delusions, nursing home wandering and other behavior, leading to harm or resident injury.

A recent Queen’s Medical Center study in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that the number of senior patients with mental illnesses receiving emergency treatment has spiked, with a 30% jump from 2008-2009. Many elderly patients were reportedly brought into the hospital by caregivers or family members who were unable to deal with the severe symptoms of the mental illnesses, and were exhausted or overwhelmed by the caregiving. The study found that emergency room treatment often occurs after many attempts of local placement for the senior.

Continue reading "Psychiatric Report Says U.S. Needs to Prepare for Increase of Elderly Dementia" »

In a recent Talbot County, Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed a devastating nursing home wandering case, that was allegedly caused by negligence and resulted in the resident's wrongful death.

Nursing home wandering frequently occurs with residents who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and suffer from confusion and disorientation. It is important for nursing homes to recognize residents who are at-risk for nursing home wandering and falls to prevent patient injury or wrongful death.

In another tragic nursing home wandering case, a home was recently fined over $20,000 after an elderly blind resident with dementia wandered from the Kernersville home and drowned in a puddle around 200 feet away from the facility.

The resident reportedly approached the staff in the home’s lobby three times late in the evening, each time in a disoriented state, wanting someone to take her across the creek to the next county. The staff reportedly took the resident back to her bed each time, where she remained until they did the 2 a.m. bed check.

According to the state investigation, the resident left the building sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. The alarm on the door did not turn off, as it had been reportedly deactivated so staff could go outside for smoking breaks. The staff allegedly neglected to turn the alarm back on.

Continue reading "Dementia Patient’s Wandering Leads to Death—Nursing Home Fined $20K for Negligence" »

According to a shocking Miami Herald expose that our Hartford County, Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys have been following, nursing homes throughout Florida are being accused of horrific cases of elder abuse and neglect. The series of articles in the Herald highlight an alleged breakdown in the state’s nursing home enforcement system—leaving thousands of residents in conditions that are both dangerous and decrepit.

The Herald spent a year examining assisted living facilities and found that as the number of homes have increased to accommodate the state’s major elderly population increase, Florida has failed to protect the very people it was meant to safeguard. Although the number of new nursing homes has totaled 550 in the last five years, the state has reportedly dropped necessary home inspections by 33%, allowing homes with the worst abuse and neglect offenses to remain open.

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration oversees 2,850 facilities, and has allegedly neglected to monitor nursing home operators for abuse or neglect, investigate nursing home reports citing dangerous practices, and shut down the homes with the worst offenders—many of which lack necessary staffing, disregard nursing home regulations and deprive their residents of the most basic needs, like food, water and safety.

The investigation found that nearly once every month, residents die from nursing home abuse and neglect. In one incident, a 75-year-old dementia resident, who was at high risk for nursing home wandering, walked away from the Pinellas County nursing home, and reportedly had his body torn apart by alligators. In another home, a 71-year-old resident with a mental illness was burned so severely from being left in a bathtub that was carelessly filled with scalding hot water, that he died from a result of the burns.

Many nursing homes, according to the article, are also regularly caught using restraints that are against the law, including ropes and powerful tranquilizers. In one assisted living home a 74-year-old woman was bound for over six hours, with restraints allegedly wrapped so painfully tight that the device her tore into her flesh, causing her death.

Continue reading " Florida Nursing Homes Investigated for Severe Abuse and Negligence" »

According to recent nursing home abuse news that our Frederick County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following, a New York nursing home aide will reportedly spend up to seven years in prison, after being charged the with sexual abuse of a nursing home resident.

The resident, a 61-year old stroke victim, reportedly entered the home after becoming partially paralyzed and unable to speak—due to the stroke. The home considered the resident ‘completely dependent’ and assigned a male nurse to tend to her in the midnight shift.

The nurse, Jose Ramos, was reportedly in the resident’s room when another nurse noticed that the call light came on three different times. The nurse entered the room, and discovered Ramos sexually abusing the resident.

Although the nursing home abuse victim was not able to speak, she testified at the trial by pointing to letters that an interpreter read, in order to spell the words that she could not articulate.

Ramos was sentenced to seven years in state prison for sex abuse, endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person and endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person. According to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Sex Crimes and Elder Abuse Units are committed to seeking justice for victims of elder abuse and sexual violence—especially when nursing home trust is violated with vulnerable elders.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Aide Receives Prison Sentence for Sexual Abuse" »

In yet another nursing home fall and wrongful death lawsuit that our Frederick County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following, a Texas nursing home is being sued by the daughter of a deceased resident for negligence.

According to the lawsuit, Miriam Davis is suing Friendswood nursing home for negligence, after her mother died from multiple falls while she was a resident in the nursing home. Davis claims that the nursing home admitted her mother, Virginia Melghem, in November 2009, even though they were aware that she was at-risk for falling, and that they could not properly care for, supervise, or monitor her mother’s needs for safe care and nursing home treatment.

Davis claims that she was told her mother would receive proper care that would be administered to her in a manner that was appropriate to her physical and mental condition. As a resident however, Davis claims that her mother went on to sustain injuries and trauma that included multiple nursing home falls, that last of which led to a broken hip. After her last fall, Melghem died one week later.

According to the CDC, 20 - 30% of elderly people who fall, experience moderate to severe fall-related injuries such as fractured hips, lacerations, or traumas to the head—which can increase the risk of early death. The CDC also claims that the death rates from falls with elderly men and women have spiked over the past decade.

Continue reading "Daughter Sues For Nursing Home Negligence After Mother’s Fall-related Death" »

In recent news that our Baltimore nursing home negligence attorneys have been following, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the husband of a 60-year-old Portsmouth Regional Hospital patient, who alleges that the hospital’s negligence and sub-standard care caused his wife to die from infected bedsores.

According to the lawsuit filed last month, Robert Vozzella claims that the hospital failed to detect and treat his wife's pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, that developed on her backside while she recovered from surgery. The bedsores reportedly weren't discovered for three days, and although Vozzella went through two months of pressure ulcer surgeries, the sores became infected due to reported fecal contamination—that led to her wrongful death.

As our Maryland nursing home attorneys have recently discussed, pressure ulcers affect nearly one million people every year, causing nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of serious bed sore development.

Pressure sores often develop in hospitals or nursing care facilities, where patients are immobile for long periods of time without moving. When patients are immobile, often recovering from surgery, or receiving medication, it puts pressure on certain parts of the body, causing the areas to lose circulation—leading the skin to breakdown and develop pressure ulcers.

With proper bed sore care and prevention, pressure ulcers are entirely preventable and even reversible, if discovered quickly enough and given the right treatment and necessary environment for comprehensive healing.

Continue reading "Husband Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit File After Wife Dies From Bedsores" »

Our Washington D.C. nursing home injury attorneys recently discussed the problem of fall-related injuries across the country, and the importance wellness and prevention education plays in keeping elders out of the hospital and nursing homes.

Much of the work of preventing falls with the elderly starts with always reporting any change in health conditions to doctors, like dizziness, and reporting previous falls. Other recommendations include daily exercise and hydration, and having regular eye exams, along with working with a doctor to minimize or revise medication management to work best for the individual. Other expert suggestions include having railings and bars installed in houses and showers, keeping clutter off the floor, avoiding any clothing that is loose or could cause a senior to trip, and for homes to be very well-lit. Other advice includes creating an emergency plan in case of a fall—like having seniors wear a medical device that would call for emergency attention.

In a recent Washington D.C. nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the CDC’s recommendations on how to prevent nursing home falls, which include assessing each resident after a fall to discuss the senior’s medical conditions and risk factors, by discussing potential risks with falling, and reviewing prescribed medications. The CDC also advises that if a senior is recovering from a fall, that the nursing home, hospital or rehab facilities should provide a safe environment to residents who are prone to falling—including raised toilet seats, safety handles and bars in rooms and bathrooms, handrails, adjustable bed heights that can be lowered, and padding to prevent injury. The CDC also recommends using alarm devices that are triggered when a patients attempts to get out of bed without assistance.

If someone you know in the Washington D.C. area has experienced nursing home or hospital falls that could be due to negligence, call our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC today for a free consultation, at 1-800-654-1949.

Continue reading "The Problem of Fall-related Injuries in Nursing Homes and Hospitals" »

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year, 1 in 3 elderly adults over the age of 65 suffer from falls, many of which happen in nursing homes—with falls being the leading cause of injury-related death in the age group.

A recent Los Angeles Times article discussed the prevalence of nursing home falls, and that as people get older and more frail, falls can have a life-altering and devastating impact on seniors—often talking a long time before the person can get back to their pre-fall health status, if ever.

To combat the problem of hospital and nursing home falls many programs across the country are being formed to improve fall awareness and prevention. In Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, senior balance classes are offered for their patients, as well as a yearly event for seniors that screen individuals to see who is at risk for falls.

In Lake County, California, a Falls Prevention Task Force has reportedly been implemented with hospitals, fire departments and senior centers, to distribute prevention and awareness literature and sponsor strength and balance classes to improve lower-body strength in seniors.

According to Lake County, when seniors suffer from broken hips due to a fall-related injury and are admitted to a hospital, over 50 percent of the seniors must spend time in a nursing facility or rehab center before going home. Twenty percent of these elderly patients will die within a year of the fall-related injuries.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Fall Awareness and Prevention " »

According to recent news that our Baltimore nursing home attorneys have been following, a nursing home in West Virginia is being sued for negligence, after a patient living in the home for three years allegedly experienced neglect and wrongful death.

HCR Manorcare is reportedly being sued by Angela Black, claiming that family member Arcel Rose was neglected while living at the home from 2006 until his death in 2009. Black claims that the nursing home caused Rose’s deterioration of health and physical condition beyond what is caused by the normal process of aging—leading to dehydration, infections, pressure sores, malnutrition and death.

Black claims that while under the nursing home’s care, Rose experienced serious emotional and physical trauma, causing extreme and unnecessary pain, degradation, unnecessary hospitalizations, disfigurement, and loss of personal dignity.

As our attorneys have discussed in a related Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, pressure sores pose serious threat to nursing homes across the country, with around one million people affected every year, causing nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of the advanced bed sore development. As our lawyers have previously discussed, with proper nursing home care and prevention, pressure ulcers are entirely preventable and even reversible, if they are discovered quickly enough and given the immediate treatment and environment for proper healing.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued For Negligence after Patient Died from Pressure Sore Complication" »

According to an article in the Chicago Sun Times that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have been following, a recent nursing home fall caused the death of a resident—who tied sheets together and used them as a rope to try and lower himself out of the window and escape.

Ramon Crisantos, a 57-year old resident living in the Woodbridge Nursing Pavilion, reportedly woke up early in the morning, and was observed by a nurse to be doing his normal routine, so she continued her daily duties at the home. Crisantos was later discovered lying on the ground outside the home near a makeshift rope made out of bed sheets that had been tied together. It appeared Crisantos was trying to escape and lower himself out of a window to the ground 10-12 feet below.

Crisantos was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, five hours after being found, from sustaining multiple injuries from the nursing home fall. It reportedly wasn’t clear why Crisantos was trying to sneak out of the nursing facility, as Woodbridge’s website claims that residents are allowed to leave the facility. His death was ruled an accident.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that each year an average nursing home with 100 beds reports 100 to 200 nursing home falls, with about 1,800 older adults living in nursing homes dying from fall-related injuries. The CDC reports that finding ways to prevent fall-related injuries with elderly residents in nursing homes and hospitals is extremely important in preventing future injuries.

Continue reading "Nursing Facility Fall Leads to Death of Escaping Resident" »

Our Hartford County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following a recent nursing home neglect and wrongful death lawsuit trial, where a Georgia jury awarded the family of a resident with over $9 million after finding the nursing home responsible for her neglect and mistreatment.

The lawsuit claimed that Charlotte Paulette Dean, a 51-year old resident of the County Crossing Assisted Living and Hutcheson Home Health Care, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was found to have various infected decubitus ulcers, or pressure sores, after being rushed to the hospital in 2006.

Dean reportedly died the following day in the hospital, and her family claims in the lawsuit that Dean’s personal injuries and wrongful death were caused by the nursing home’s negligence and mistreatment, and failure to properly care for Dean while she was a resident of the home. The trial reportedly lasted for one week, wherein the jury decided to award Dean’s family with $9,502,683 to cover pain, suffering, wrongful death, and funeral expenses.

Under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, all residents living in assisted living or nursing homes are entitled to receive quality care and attention with a supportive environment that improves and maintains the quality of their physical and mental health. If a Maryland assisted living or nursing home resident becomes injured or dies because of nursing home neglect, the home could be responsible for Maryland nursing home wrongful death or negligence.

Continue reading "Family Awarded Nearly $10M in Nursing Home Neglect and Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

Our Maryland nursing home abuse attorneys have been watching the shocking news development this week of yet another nursing home abuse incident, where 22-year old nursing home worker Samirah Traynham and two co-workers from Delaware County were arrested after being caught abusing a 78-year old patient on a hidden camera.

According to Philly.com, Lois McCallister, a dementia patient of Quadrangle Assisted Living Facility in Haverford, repeatedly told her family that she was being slapped, punched and picked on by the nursing facility staff. The family discussed the nursing home abuse with the home administration, and the home reportedly blamed the claims on McCallister’s dementia, calling the allegations unfounded.

After discovering bruises on McCallister’s hand and wrist on a later visit, the family secretly installed a hidden camera or ‘nanny cam” in a clock, to record McCallister’s treatment at the home.

The video reportedly showed McCallister being hit in the face and head while being dressed, along with other abuse. In another reported video, Traynham and two other workers laughed and mocked the victim’s dementia for 12 minutes while McCallister stood in front of them, with no clothes from the waist up, trying to leave the room. Another employee reportedly danced on McCallister’s bed post like a stripper, or pole-dancer, while one of the other employees tried to pull on McCallister’s ears, knowing they were sensitive from previously having hearing aids.

Traynham was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment, neglect of a person who is care-dependent, recklessly endangering another person, and criminal conspiracy, and according to the assistant district attorney, addition arrests at the home are expected.

Continue reading "Nanny Cam Catches Nursing Home Abuse—Dementia Patient Forced to Stand Topless" »

As our attorneys discussed in a recent Baltimore nursing home abuse blog, elder abuse is a huge and growing problem in the United States, with more than one in ten elders experiencing abuse and only one in five reported every year. According to the U.S. Government, approximately 700,000 to 3.5 million elderly Americans are abused, exploited and neglected in this country every year.

The New York State Department of Health released new documents last week detailing a disturbing nursing home abuse case where employees in Wheatfield nursing home harassed and abused two elderly residents suffering from dementia by placing them in the same bed together and trying to convince them that they were husband and wife—to allegedly spur inappropriate interaction for their own amusement.

According to the report, Gloria Maxwell, an employee of the home, and Alicia Clemens, a certified nursing assistant, placed an elderly female resident who suffers from schizophrenia and mild retardation, into a room occupied by an elderly resident and his actual wife. The elderly man, who suffers from dementia and is reported to be legally blind, is described in the documents as being occasionally prone to sexually inappropriate behavior. By placing the female resident in his bed, Clemens and Maxwell reportedly engaged in nursing home abuse by attempting to convince the two residents that they were married in order to solicit physical interaction—providing sexually provocative commentary, and taking cell phone photographs of the two.

According to the 10-month investigation conducted by the health department, the evidence of the case did not rise to the level of criminal activity, but was considered inappropriate interaction with residents, and the nurses aides were immediately fired and fined after the incident, and are not eligible to work at any other nursing home in the state.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Staff Tries to Initiate Sexual Behavior Between Two Dementia Residents for Amusement " »

Our Maryland elder abuse lawyers recently discussed the vastly under reported problem of elder financial abuse among vulnerable seniors across the country, that according to a recent study estimated financial losses of at least $2.6 billion per year.

Under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, it is a violation of Federal and State law for any person, including nursing home facility staff, visitors, facility volunteers, guardians or other residents to engage in nursing home abuse or neglect.

Experts are stressing the importance of public awareness of elder abuse and neglect in communities, as our related Baltimore nursing home neglect blog recently discussed and how important it is for healthcare providers, families, bankers, or even church members—anyone who might be privy to information that could indicate that a senior is being abused physically, emotionally or financially--to come forward and report the abuse.

According to the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR) anyone can and should report abuse and neglect. If a nursing home resident tells you they are being abused:

• Always believe the resident and report the allegations immediately to prevent any other suffering by the resident.
• Many state laws require the reporting of nursing home abuse and neglect--find out what your state laws.

When filing a report, make sure to put your report in writing, date it and keep a copy of it. Include as much evidence as possible about the abuse and remember to include:

• The name, age and address of the victim. Also include the name of nursing home facility and the name of the people responsible for the care, along with the person who you believe is responsible for abuse or neglect.
• Include the nature of the abuse, and the extent of harm as well as any physical signs of elder abuse. If there were any previous incidents of abuse, write down every detail of what happened.
• Remember to add the location of the place that the incident happened, and the time and date of the incident.
• Always include as much background information as possible to help an investigator to address the incident and situation quickly.

Continue reading "The Importance of Reporting Nursing Home and Elder Abuse" »

As Baltimore, Maryland nursing home injury attorneys we have recently discussed the topic of elder abuse in a nursing home abuse blog, and the prevalence of abuse in health care facilities and communities across the country, unlawfully causing harm, personal injury, and even death to older and vulnerable adults.

According to the NCEA and the NCCNHR, types of elder abuse include emotional, physical, verbal, sexual, and psychological abuse, as well as neglect, intimidation, abandonment, and exploitation.

• Physical abuse includes inflicting physical pain or injury on an elder, or the threat of inflicting pain. Physical abuse also includes hitting, pinching, slapping, shoving, and force-feeding, along with rough handling during nursing home care and treatment, when being moved, cared for, fed or given medicine. Physical abuse can also result from a nursing home staff member or an outside intruder or visitor.

• Emotional or psychological abuse inflicts mental pain, anguish, or distress on an elderly person or nursing home resident through verbal and non-verbal acts, which includes ridiculing or cursing a resident, threats of punishment or deprivation, rejection or isolation.

• Sexual abuse is non-consensual sexual contact where a resident is tricked, forced, threatened or coerced into performing acts of a sexual nature.

• Neglect is the failure to provide elderly adults with basic needs, such as proper health care and medical treatment, shelter, protection or food, which can result in conditions like dehydration, malnourishment, incontinence, pressure sores, incontinence, depression and immobilization.

Continue reading "Types of Elder Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes" »

Elder abuse, as our Baltimore nursing home abuse attorneys have reported in a related Maryland elder abuse blog, is a term used to refer to any treatment by nursing home staff, a health care provider, or any other person that is negligent, intentionally causing harm or a great risk of harm to an elderly adult who is vulnerable.

According to the NCEA, research indicates that more than one in ten elders experience abuse, with only one in five reported every year. The White House reports that every year approximately 700,000 to 3.5 million elderly Americans are abused, exploited and neglected. Studies show that elders are often abused by the very people that they trust the most, like spouses, family members, personal acquaintances or professionals in a position of trust.

According to the NCEA and the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR), types of elder abuse include physical, emotional, verbal, mental, psychological, and sexual abuse, as wall as exploitation, neglect, abandonment, or intimidation.

Elder abuse can happen anywhere, in nursing homes, healthcare facilities or in the community, and is a problem that remains to be under recognized, causing elders to experience consequences that can lead to personal injury or even wrongful death.

Continue reading "Elder Abuse—a Rampant Problem in Nursing Homes" »

Another assisted living facility in Illinois has been sued for negligence, according to a Madison Record news story that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have been following, after a resident died from health complications and injuries sustained after tripping on a telephone cord in the home’s walkway.

According to the lawsuit, Cambridge House of O’Fallon and BMA management are both being sued by David L. Hubert, a relative of Anastasia J. Hubert, who reportedly sustained a spinal fracture as a result of the nursing home fall.

The assisted living home is being blamed for nursing home negligence, for leaving a telephone cord in the hallway near a nurse’s desk that was unprotected and exposed, allegedly tripping the resident as she walked by the nurse’s desk.

Hubert claims that Hubert's injuries were a great source of pain and suffering and caused her to sustain a major loss of her normal life, along with major medical costs. Her family also claims that as a result of Hubert's death, they have suffered the emotional loss of her company.

The CDC reports that over 1,800 residents die each year from falls in nursing homes. Personal injuries sustained from nursing home and hospital falls can be debilitating and expensive for adults to face. As the CDC reports, nursing homes should try to prevent falls by addressing the medical conditions of each resident, as well as identifying the potential risk factors, to ensure that assisted living facilities and hospitals are safe for residents who are at-risk for falls—providing environments that are free from personal injury or wrongful deaths often associated with falls.

Continue reading "Assisted Living Center Faces Lawsuit After Resident Dies From Tripping on Phone Cord" »

In a previous Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the risk of pressure sore development in nursing homes, and the importance of proper nursing home care for pressure ulcer prevention and maintenance, to avoid resident injury or complications that can result in death.

According to recent news, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by Donald Simonton, who is suing Teays Vallen Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Charleston Area Medical Center for the death of his mother, Linda Bea Simonton. Simonton claims that the home engaged in nursing home negligence that reportedly led to the development and worsening of her bedsores, or decubitus ulcers, leading to her wrongful death.

Simonton was reportedly a resident of the home from December of 2008 to January of 2009, to receive physical and occupational therapy as well as skilled wound-care treatment for her legs. Her son claims that while she was at the home, her leg wounds became much worse and she developed additional pressure sores that would not have formed if the center had provided adequate nutrition. Simonton claims that his mother also suffered from inadequate hydration, which led to acute renal failure, among other health conditions leading to her untimely death.

As our Baltimore County nursing home lawyers discussed in a previous pressure sore prevention blog, once a pressure sore starts to form, the wound needs to be cared for immediately, as the sores can be healed with proper wound-care management, to prevent further skin breakdown or tissue loss. According to the Mayo Clinic, diet is also an essential part of pressure sore prevention and healing, as balanced meals supply the necessary nutrients needed to keep residents healthy.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit Accuses Rehabilitation Center of Decubitus Ulcers, Wrongful Death" »

As our attorneys have discussed in a related Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog post, pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, are a rampant nursing home and assisted-living problem plaguing around one million people across the country every year, with nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of the advanced stages of pressure sores. Decubitus ulcers are sores that are entirely preventable, with proper nursing home care.

Pressure sores often develop at nursing home or assisted-living facilities when patients are elderly, or have limited mobility and rest for long periods of time without moving positions, which applies pressure to specific areas of the body and cuts off blood circulation, leading to skin deterioration or breakdown.

With proper nursing home staff attention, pressure sores can be prevented before they develop into the four stages of pressure sore development, often leading to soft tissue loss, deep painful craters, damage of joints and tendons and massive infections like sepsis or osteomyelitis, which can lead to nursing home injury or even death.

Other contributing pressure sore factors include dehydration, poor nutrition and lack of vitamins and minerals, as well as understaffed nurses, and health care staff without proper bed sore prevention and treatment training, which can lead to nursing home negligence—where elderly or immobile residents are left to sit for long periods of time without being moved, without having soiled undergarments changed, or without properly being cared for.

Continue reading " Decubitus Ulcers and Nursing Home Negligence" »

In a recent wrongful death lawsuit development that our Hartford County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been watching, an Illinois nursing home has been accused of negligence and improper care that reportedly caused the death of a resident living in the home.

According to the complaint, Doris Schaepperkoetter entered The Lincoln Home, a long-term care facility in July of 2008. The executor of the estate, Carol Keifer, claims that from the time she entered the home until her death in January of 2010, she was not given the proper nursing home care that she was expected to receive by law.

While a resident at the home, Schaepperkoetter reportedly suffered from dehydration, hypoxia and sepsis, a dangerous infection of the blood that forms a massive infection in the body, resulting in blood poisoning, and is often associated with nursing home neglect and abuse. Sepsis can be a lethal condition if it progresses rapidly, and can lead to organ failure. According to the complaint, the combination of sepsis, dehydration and hypoxia caused her death.

Keifer is accusing the nursing home of wrongful death and nursing home negligence, and claims that The Lincoln Home Inc. and its owner, Weiss Management Group LLC, violated the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, a law that protects residents in long-term care facilities from abuse and neglect.

Continue reading " Nursing Home Sued for Wrongful Death After Resident Dies from Sepsis, Dehydration" »

In a recent Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the use of hidden cameras or “Granny cams” in nursing homes, and how one hidden camera investigation led to the arrest of twenty-two healthcare workers, after the video showed rampant nursing home neglect and abuse.

A residential care home in California has recently been shut down after the grandson of an elderly resident captured footage on his small “granny cam" that reportedly showed his grandmother being abused by the staff, treatment that according to the resident’s family led to her wrongful death while she received care in the elderly home.

Shortly after Kyong Hui Duncan moved into Fair Oaks elderly care, her grandson installed a camera by the bed to ensure that his grandmother did not experience any nursing home abuse or negligence. But when he visited his grandmother, Seah Suh would often find the camera unplugged.

After Duncan died, Suh reportedly discovered footage that captured Duncan being moved to and from her wheelchair in a violent manner, with abusive shaking by a staffer. The staff members are also being accused of improperly restraining Duncan, and failing to care for her in a fast enough manner after she had fallen. After seeing the footage from the "Granny Cam" the California Department of Social Services investigated the home, ordering that the home’s operators close their doors. The state is also reportedly moving to permanently revoke the home’s nursing home license.

Continue reading "“Granny Cam” Footage Captures Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect—Shuts Down Home" »

As our nursing home attorneys in Charles County, Maryland have discussed in a previous blog post, falls in nursing homes and hospitals are a major problem today, with over 1,800 residents dying each year due to fall-related injuries, according to the CDC. Although only five percent of adults who are 65-years-old or older live in nursing homes, these people account for 20 percent of the fall-related fatalities.

The CDC reports that elderly residents and patients often fall more than once, with an average of 2.6 falls per person per year. This was allegedly the case with Gladys Feran, a resident of Larchwood Village Retirement Community, whose family is now suing the facility for neglecting to disclose that their mother had experienced 17 falls in 16 months, including the last nursing home fall, which reportedly contributed to her death.

Although people living in nursing homes are among the most frail and at-risk for falls, Feran's family was reportedly shocked not only at the number of falls their mother experienced, but the failure of the nursing home to tell them about the falls.

Larchwood Village was cited by the state for not reporting a fall from 2008 that led a broken hip and collarbone for Feran. Feran reportedly fell while pushing another resident in a wheelchair, which her family later found out wasn’t the first time she had fallen from this kind of activity.

In April 2009, Feran experienced her final nursing home fall while turning off her television and after being checked out by a nurse, was put back on the couch. Feran was taken to the hospital one week later after experiencing serious pain, where she was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis. Two weeks later, Feran reportedly died of a lung infection that the coroner ruled was linked to the broken pelvis.

Continue reading "Undisclosed Nursing Home Falls Lead To Lawsuit After Resident’s Death" »

In a recent lawsuit that our Washington D.C. nursing home attorneys have been following, an Illinois nursing home has recently been sued for nursing home neglect for failing to properly care for a resident and to detect healthcare problems that allegedly led to the resident’s death.

According to the lawsuit, 63-year-old Carol Harrison was admitted to Maple Ridge nursing home in June of 2009 in an effort to help wean her from the ventilator that she was put on after going into a coma during an operation performed to remove a tumor from her lungs. The operation was reportedly successful, and after she emerged from a coma, Harrison was expected to recover and return home.

The lawsuit, filed by Harrison’s husband Thomas Harrison, claims that while a resident of the Maple Ridge nursing home, the home neglected to properly care for his wife, and due to a 16-hour delay in discovering a health problem that was later revealed to be deep-vein-thrombosis, Harrison was forced to endure a leg amputation that led to her alleged quick demise and death on August 1, 2009.

This is the second nursing home death that Maple Ridge has been linked to from 2009. The home reportedly paid the state a $6,500 fine in connection to the failure to resuscitate a dying female resident in 2009, three months before Carol Harrison’s death.

As our nursing home attorneys in Washington County reported in a recent blog, according to the Resident’s Bill of Rights under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, all residents are entitled to have their medical, social, physical and psychological needs accommodated, as well as the right to exercise self determination, their right to resuscitation, and to experience in advance with full disclosure about any possible changes in treatment, health care, or status within the nursing home.

Continue reading "Husband Sues Over Wife’s Preventable Death in Nursing Home" »

Our Baltimore County nursing home attorneys were stunned to see the recent details revealed in a nursing home abuse sentence from this month, where two women working at a Tennessee nursing facility were given a two-year prison sentence for engaging in the abuse of elders by taking video and photos of severely disabled residents on a cell phone in degrading and helpless positions.

According to the Knox News Sentinel, two Pigeon Forge Care and Rehabilitation Center nursing assistants, Mary Ann Burgess and April Longmire, 52 and 37, were indicted after the TBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation found that the two certified nursing assistants took photos at the center from 2007-2009 that were, according to Judge Richard Vance, the Sevier County Circuit Court Judge, shocking, offensive and reprehensible.

The duties of the two women included changing, dressing and feeding adults in the home who were severely disabled, from mild dementia to severe Alzheimer’s disease. According to the TBI, the photos were discovered after a cell phone was turned in and administrators tried to figure out who the missing phone belonged to. After TBI interviews, it was determined that Longmire was the owner of the phone, who is also stated to be one who instigated taking the photos.

Photos that were taken by Burgess and Longmire reportedly include images of naked elderly residents in helpless positions lying on the floor, in the bathroom, or in their beds, as well as abusive and degrading shots of some residents attempting to eat while food fell from their mouths.

Continue reading "Nursing Assistants Sentenced to 2 Years For Taking Derogatory Photos Of Helpless Residents" »

In recent news, a 43-year-old man was sentenced to 17 years in California state prison for the 2002 assault and rape of a woman residing in a Palo Alto, California nursing home.

As our Baltimore, Maryland employment attorneys previously reported on this case in a blog, Roberto Recendes pleaded guilty in October of last year to one count of sexual penetration by force, one count of elder abuse, and also pleased guilty to a penalty enhancement for inflicting bodily injury on the elderly woman.

Recendes was only linked to the 2002 crime when a DNA sample was taken from him after he was convicted of domestic violence in 2004. Two years after the conviction, his DNA was matched to the sample taken at the nursing home rape crime scene. In 2002, the case drew national attention, after a high school student was arrested by the Palo Alto police, and reportedly forced to confess to the nursing home abuse and rape crimes. The student was later exonerated of the crimes due to the DNA evidence.

As our Prince George’s County nursing home attorneys have stated in a previous blog, under the federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, residents have the right to live in a nursing home environment that is safe, and provides quality care and attention that improves and maintains their highest mental and physical well being, and is free from nursing home abuse and negligence.

Continue reading "Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Nursing Home Rape of Elderly CA Resident" »

According to a recent news development that our Baltimore, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been watching, three nursing homes in New York State are facing huge state and federal penalties for nursing home violations that allegedly include nursing home negligence for failure to treat pressure sores, and failure to follow the advance wishes of residents who are terminally ill.

The Long-Term Care Community Coalition, a watchdog and advocacy group that tracks the enforcement of New York State nursing home laws, reported that Somers Manor Nursing Home will pay over $28,000 in fines after state inspections found the home to have a major problem failing to ensure that its residents’ “do-not-resuscitate” (DNR) wishes were not being followed, putting some residents at risk, by subjecting them to the painful resuscitation process when they have specifically asked not to be.

Northern Riverview Health Care Center, another home that received fines recently, will reportedly pay over $22,000 in fines for not properly preventing and treating pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers. As our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys discussed recently in a blog, bed sores often occur when a resident is lying in one position for long periods of time without movement, restricting blood circulation. Bed sores can be prevented, and failure to do so can result in nursing home negligence or even lead to wrongful death.

Dumont Masonic Home reportedly paid $20,000 in sanctions last year, for failing follow proper procedures while renovating the nursing home building, which could have led to personal injury of its residents.

Continue reading "Three New York Nursing Homes Hit With Violations Due to Negligence" »

A recent special report entitled “Seniors for Sale,” published by the Seattle Times, uncovered hundreds of cases of nursing home abuse, negligence and wrongful death in adult homes in Washington, where seniors had been injured or died as a result of neglect or substandard care in adult homes, often by receiving care from healthcare providers who were not properly trained.

As nursing home neglect lawyers based in Baltimore, Maryland, we have been following the recent news that in one of the cases, the former owner of an adult family home received a one year prison sentence for her role in the nursing home negligence and wrongful death of an 87-year old at Houghton’s Lakeview adult home.

According to the Seattle Times, 62-year-old Patricia Goodwill pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal mistreatment, for creating a substantial risk of death for resident Jean Rudolph, by failing to protect the elderly woman from developing pressure sores, and for failing to ensure proper care. Rudolph reportedly died of pressure sores that were untreated, and suffered greatly for three weeks prior to her death without proper treatment for her wounds.

As our Maryland nursing home attorneys discussed in a previous blog, elderly or immobile residents are at great risk for pressure sores, and one small inflammation can quickly develop into a deep crater that can be extremely painful, hard to heal, and can cause serious infection. It is important for nursing homes and adult care facilities to practice pressure sore prevention and treatment, to avoid nursing home neglect or wrongful death.

Continue reading "Caregiver Receives Prison Sentence for Nursing Home Negligence" »

In recent news that our nursing home injury attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland have been following, the wife of a nursing home resident who died last year after suffering from multiple nursing home falls as well as an infected pressure sore, has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois nursing home, seeking more than $50,000 in damages for nursing home negligence.

According to the lawsuit, Ralph Shafer was admitted to the nursing home in September of 2007, after suffering from two strokes, with signs of hypertension, dementia, and diabetes, among other health concerns. Shafer, who was 87 at the time, was reportedly at risk for nursing home falls, and according to Shafer’s wife, the nursing home facility failed to prevent his frequent falls. One tragic fall in 2008 led to a massive nursing home injury, where Shafer broke his hip and required surgery.

Shafer’s wife is also accusing the nursing home of failing to prevent the infection of a pressure sore on Shafer’s ankle, that reportedly developed as a result of his diabetes. Shafer died in April of 2009 from gangrene and osteomyelitis at the site of the wound, as well as complications from advanced dementia.

Osteomyelitis is a bacterial inflammation of the bones, that can develop when a Stage IV pressure sore causes severe damage to the skin, muscle and bone. As our Maryland nursing home injury lawyers discussed in a related blog, if a nursing home resident is bedridden, in a wheelchair, immobile with diabetes, has circulation issues or mental disabilities, and incontinence, the residents should be checked daily for pressure sores, and moved every two hours to relieve pressure and prevent skin breakdown that leads to pressure sores. The primary goal of pressure sore treatment is preventing them before they start.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued For Failing to Prevent Resident’s Death from Pressure Sores, Falls" »

Our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys have been following a recent lawsuit filed by the children of well-known Hollywood film and television actor Gene Barry, who allege that a nursing home neglected to monitor the actor’s health after he suffered a tragic nursing home fall, which led to his death.

Barry was reportedly admitted to Sunrise of Woodland Hills nursing home in stable condition in June of 2009 at the age of 90, even though the home was not equipped to properly care for the actor’s health needs, as he suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Barry’s children allege that their father suffered a devastating nursing home fall at the facility in December of 2009, that left him with major head injuries, brain damage, broken ribs, and an injury to his hip. The lawsuit claims that after Barry’s fall, the nursing home failed to notify a doctor and Barry’s children, and for four days he was neglected while he suffered in great pain. According to Barry’s family, this nursing home fall caused his wrongful death.

Barry’s children state that the nursing home staff, management and corporate officers are liable for nursing home negligence, elder abuse, wrongful death and nursing home fraud, in relation to the tragic incidents that led to Barry’s death. The suit claims that Barry was not properly assessed during the pre-admission process in the home, and the facility staff and management reportedly falsely represented the home to Barry’s children—as Barry was promised a nursing home environment filled with a proper standard of care that he was legally entitled to. The complaint alleges that the facility fell short of this promise, and was not equipped to handle Barry’s needs.

Continue reading "Children of Hollywood Actor Gene Barry Sue Nursing Home for Elder Abuse and Negligence" »

Our Washington D.C. nursing home injury attorneys recently discussed the prevalence of falls in nursing homes and hospitals in a blog, and how to reduce the number of falls that can result in nursing home resident injury and wrongful death throughout the nation.

The CDC reports that over 1,800 residents die each year from falls in nursing homes. Injuries sustained from nursing homes and hospital falls can be frequent, debilitating, and expensive health care issues for elderly adults to face. As the CDC reports, finding ways to prevent fall-related injuries with elderly residents in nursing homes and hospitals is extremely important in preventing future injuries.

Elderly residents who are weak, have difficulty caring for themselves or have difficulty walking, are often prone to nursing home or hospital falls, along with patients who have chronic health conditions, or memory problems like Alzheimer’s or dementia.

According to Dr. Ronald I. Shorr, MD, in hospitals, there are generally two types of patients who fall: patients who are frail, and patients who don’t want to interrupt or bother the hospital staff. Hospital providers have reportedly found success in preventing falls by installing alarms, scheduling the administration of medication to prevent falls, redesigning rooms to have bathrooms closer to beds, and updating fall-risk assessments that are shared with healthcare teams and patients, while they are hospitalized and after they leave to return home. Shorr is reportedly in the middle of a study funded by the National Institute of Health on how to prevent falls.

Continue reading "Reducing Nursing Home and Hospital Falls to Prevent Patient Injury" »

In a recent blog, our nursing home lawyers based in Baltimore, Maryland discussed the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, (NHRA) and the standards and services legally available to residents under the act, to prevent nursing home negligence, abuse, or substandard care.

The main objective of the NHRA is to make sure all nursing home residents are entitled to receive quality care and attention in a nursing home environment that improves and maintains their highest mental and physical health and psychosocial well being. To secure that quality care is provided in homes, the NHRA requires that homes provide each resident with certain services, and a Bill of Rights.

As our Baltimore nursing home attorneys reported previously in a blog, nursing homes receive Medicare and Medicaid payments for long-term resident care only if they receive state certification to be in compliance with the NHRA requirements. To monitor whether or not nursing homes meet the requirements, the act established a certification process that requires each state to conduct surveys in the home that are unannounced and poised at irregular intervals, at least once every 15 months.

The surveys reportedly focus on the residents’ quality of care, rights, quality of life, and the home’s provision of resident services. Targeted surveys are also performed, with resident interviews, and any nursing home negligence or other resident complaints against the home are required to be investigated.

Continue reading "Federal Nursing Home Reform Act Compliance" »

In a recent wrongful death and negligence lawsuit settlement, the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has agreed to pay the family of a retired Philadelphia police officer and Korean war veteran $250,000, after the elderly man wandered unsupervised from the state veterans nursing home and froze to death.

According to an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, that our Baltimore nursing home negligence attorneys have been following, Chapman was 75-years-old, and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. On December 31, 2007, Chapman reportedly wandered away from the home wearing his pajamas, to the outside cold that fell below freezing that night. The surveillance camera recorded Chapman’s exit, where he walked right by the security staff, and was unnoticed by the staff.

Chapman’s daughter alleged in the lawsuit that the workers were negligent in their duties and distracted because of the home's plans for a New Year’s party. Chapman’s wandering was reportedly not noticed for two hours, even though it was their duty to monitor him. Chapman’s body was found the next morning, and according to his widow, it was only a few hundred yards from them home. The cause of death was ruled as hypothermia by the autopsy.

In an inspection report that came from the state Health Department, the home was cited for failing to take timely action, that resulted in harm and death to the veterans home resident. After the incident, records reportedly show that several of the veterans home staff were suspended or received reprimand. According to agency officials, procedures have been put into place to prevent a recurrence of this type of tragedy. The settlement agreement will reportedly be given to Chapman’s daughters, and to the family’s estate.

Continue reading "Negligence Lawsuit Settlement Reached—Home Sued After Wandering Veteran Froze to Death" »

As our Baltimore, Maryland nursing home injury attorneys discussed in a recent blog, under the federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, (NHRA), all residents living in nursing homes are entitled to receive quality care and attention in an environment that improves and maintains their highest physical, mental health and psychosocial well being.

According to AARP, in 1986, Congress ordered a nursing home study to be performed by the Institute of Medicine, IOM. The study reportedly revealed widespread nursing home negligence, abuse, and substandard care. The IOM proposed massive reforms, a large majority of which became law in the passing of the NHRA, which is part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation act of 1987, (OBRA).

The NHRA secures quality care by requiring certain nursing home services to every resident and by establishing standards for these services. Required services include, periodic assessments of each resident, pharmaceutical, rehabilitation, and social services, a care plan for each resident that is comprehensive, and the services of a full-time social worker if there are more than 120 beds in a nursing home.

A Bill of Rights was also established under the NHRA to secure quality care for each resident. Under the Resident’s Bill of Rights, a resident has the right to freedom of nursing home neglect, abuse and mistreatment, and the right to treatment that is free from physical restraints. Under the act, residents and patients also have the right to privacy, the right to be treated with dignity, the right communicate freely, the right to have medical, social, physical and psychological needs accommodated, the right to exercise self determination, and the right to participate in reviewing their own plan, with full disclosure in advance about any changes in treatment, care, or status change within the nursing home. Nursing home residents are also entitled to communicate any problems without experiencing any discrimination or retaliation.

Continue reading "Residents’ Rights under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987" »

As Baltimore, Maryland nursing home injury attorneys, we have been following the news of a recent tragedy, where the estate of nursing home resident Mary Speigl, who was living in the Franciscan Villa nursing home, is suing the home for nursing home negligence and abuse, after Speigl was reportedly raped by a male resident last year, and died less than one month later.

According to the lawsuit, Mary Speigl, a 90-year-old nursing home resident in South Milwaukee, was sexually assaulted by a male resident who was well known for being sexually aggressive in the home, and reportedly allowed to wander the nursing home halls unsupervised. The lawsuit alleges the nursing home neglected to monitor the resident, and as a result, the resident allegedly wandered into the elderly woman’s room and sexually assaulted her. Speigl’s estate is suing the nursing home for punitive damages, among other fees.

Nursing home negligence and abuse is a serious problem in nursing homes today, often resulting in patient injury or wrongful death. Our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC believe that elderly nursing home patients should be given their lawful right to special care, attention and supervision that provides a safe, secure, and protected environment, where they are kept safe from unstable or aggressive residents.

If a nursing home resident becomes injured or dies because the home failed to protect the resident’s health and safety, the nursing home could be held liable for wrongful death or Maryland nursing home negligence. In Baltimore, Maryland, contact our attorneys today.

Continue reading "Estate of Sexually Assaulted Resident Sues for Negligence and Abuse" »

As nursing home attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland, we have been following a recent lawsuit filed by a former resident who accused the home of nursing home negligence after she fell and broke her leg while residing at the home.

According to the lawsuit, Margaret Mock, a 77-year-old woman from Schaumburg, Illinois, was living at ManorCare nursing home for rehabilitation after undergoing hip surgery. Mock claims that on September 26, 2009, while being transported by an employee from her bed to a wheelchair, she fell and reportedly broke her leg in two different places.

Mock claims in the lawsuit that because of her already weakened state, she was unable to undergo surgery to repair her broken leg—causing her to remain in the nursing home for another five months. Mock is also suing St. Alexius Medical Center for negligence, along with ManorCare and their parent companies, as she developed a pressure sore during her stay at the hospital.

As our Maryland nursing home injury lawyers reported in a recent blog, according to the CDC, muscle weaknesses and walking problems are among the most frequent causes of nursing home falls, leading to 24% of reported falls. Medications can also increase the risk of falls, as well as environmental hazards like wet floors, poor lighting, ill-fitting wheelchairs, or incorrect bed heights, leading to a reported 16-27% of nursing home falls.

Continue reading "ManorCare Sued by Injured Woman for Nursing Home Fall" »

A class action lawsuit has been filed this week against four New York State nursing homes and the company that operates them, Legacy Health Care, for depriving patients of their legal nursing home rights.

As our Baltimore-based attorneys reported in a blog, in March of this year, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) engaged in an investigation into nursing home neglect and abuse using surveillance cameras in nursing homes in the state of New York, to ensure that residents were receiving proper nursing home care that was free from abuse and neglect.

After the Attorney General’s seven-week investigation, eight workers who were employed by Williamsville Suburban Nursing Home were arrested for charges regarding the quality of patient care. The investigation revealed that the nursing home staff neglected to properly transfer residents to and from the bed with a mechanical lift, increasing the chances for nursing home injury and falls. The footage also showed that the staff neglected to treat patients for wounds, check for vital signs, or administer insulin. The resident’s medical records were also reportedly falsified to cover up the home’s consistent neglect.

According to the class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of all residents who have lived at Legacy Health Care from the year 2007 until now, Legacy is being accused of endangering the welfare of nursing home residents through failure to provide residents with their legally entitled nursing home right to quality healthcare, proper staffing, and an existence that is dignified.

Continue reading "NY Nursing Home Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Negligence and Abuse" »

In recent news that our Washington D.C. nursing home injury attorneys have been following, a lawsuit has been filed against health care workers at a Northern Virginia nursing home, accusing the workers and home of wrongful death.

According to the lawsuit, Mary Ellen Hillyard became a resident of Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation in June of 2008. In September of 2008, Hillyard reportedly suffered a massive hemorrhage and died, due to blood-thinning drugs that health care workers allegedly administered.

Evergreen is operated and managed by Pinnacle Services Winchester Inc, and the facility is owned by Long Term Care Properties (LTC) Inc. The complaint states that while Hillyard was a resident of the home, the employees of the nursing facility were negligent in their duty to administer standard nursing home care, by giving Hillyard duplicate and contraindicated blood thinning medications, including Coumadin, Plavix and aspirin, that together caused her to suffer the massive hemorrhage which reportedly causing her death.

Charles L. McDaniel, the executor of Hillyard’s estate is suing Pinnacle and LTC, as well as doctors David Epstein and Lewis A. Rogatnick for wrongful death. McDaniel claims in the suit that the firms and doctors had a duty to comply with Hillyard’s minimum standard of care, as they claimed they could provide a qualified physician with properly supervised nursing home staff that was adequately trained to meet her healthcare needs.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued for $2 Million in Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

As nursing home abuse attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland, we recently reported in a blog on a series of lawsuits against Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society in Albert Lea, Minnesota, by families of a nursing home abuse victims—after an investigation revealed nearly half a year of alleged nursing home abuse in 2008.

A recent article from the Argus Leader reports that yet another lawsuit has been filed against the nursing home in the U.S. District Court of South Dakota, as the Evangelical Good Samaritan Society’s corporate offices are based in South Dakota. In Minnesota, civil suits reportedly die with the abuse victim, but the abuse and assault claims are still open for South Dakota litigation.

According to the lawsuit, Sylvia Wulff, now deceased, was one of the victims of the alleged nursing home abuse in Good Samaritan Society's facility. Wulff’s family reportedly filed the lawsuit on September 29 in Sioux Falls, claiming that the company failed to monitor the staff, and properly screen the employees. Wulff is the sixth deceased victim who has had a lawsuit filed in South Dakota.

Brianna Broitzman and Ashton Larson were charged earlier this year with civil assault, disorderly conduct by a caregiver, abuse of vulnerable elders, and failure to report abuse, among other charges. In August, Briotzman pleaded guilty to three counts of disorderly conduct by a caregiver. Four other women, who were teenagers at the time, were reportedly charged in the case as juveniles with failure to report abuse.

According to the investigation by the Minnesota Department of Health, Larson and Broitzman were found to have allegedly encouraged young staff members at the facility to routinely abuse fifteen dementia and Alzheimer’s nursing home residents in a sexual, emotional, and physical way, while videotaping the abuse.

Continue reading "Another Minnesota Family Files Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit in South Dakota" »

Our Baltimore nursing home attorneys have been following the recent news release that the state of Maryland is slated to collect around $1.7 million in grants by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to help disabled people, seniors, and their health care givers to better comprehend and explore their long-term health care options.

The Maryland grants are reportedly being distributed by HHS as part of a new program under the Affordable Care Act. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced yesterday that under the act, around $68 million in grants will be awarded to states, tribal and community-based organizations, and territories across the country.

Sebelius stated that the Affordable Care Act will help to give individuals more power to make decisions about finding quality health care in nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities— to improve the level of care, and reduce the cost.

The national funds will reportedly be used for programs that will aim to help disabled people and the elderly and their families and caregivers to better comprehend their benefits under Medicaid and Medicare. The grant money is also intended to help seniors and disabled individuals to better understand their long-term health care options, including those that help people to remain with in nursing homes, and those to help ease the transition for people who are moving back to their home residents, after residing in a nursing home or rehabilitation facility.

Continue reading "Maryland to Receive $1.7 M in HHS Grants to Help Seniors and Disabled Individuals in Homes" »

In a recent blog, our nursing home abuse and negligence attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland discussed the danger of sepsis in nursing homes, a leading cause of death among elderly residents.

Sepsis is a deadly blood disease that forms a massive infection in the body, resulting in blood poisoning. In nursing homes across the country, sepsis often results from an infection of surgical wounds, surgical drains, intravenous lines, and stage IV pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, and is often associated with nursing home neglect and abuse.

It is reported that every year, over 200,000 people in this country die from different forms of sepsis. Sepsis usually begins as an infection and spreads quickly, causing tissue damage, organ failure and also death. Sepsis is very dangerous with nursing home residents, as their immune systems are often weak.

Preventative measures for sepsis in nursing homes include early detection and treatment of infected areas, like pressure sores, a leading cause of nursing home injury that affects nearly one million Americans every year. As our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys reported in a blog, pressure sores often develop after a resident stays in one position for too long, which causes a restriction of the resident’s blood supply to the skin, wherein pressure sores form due to the unrelieved pressure.

Nursing home residents who are elderly and have restricted movement are highly susceptible to bed sores, and if the sores go untreated, they can lead to bacterial sepsis. Many cases of advanced pressure sores are often the result of nursing home neglect, and many times lead to a resident’s death. Nursing home staff should pay special attention to elderly residents who are at risk for developing bed sores, or sepsis, in order to prevent nursing home injury or wrongful death. Around 60,000 people are reported to die every year from some form of complication surrounding the more advanced stages of pressure sores.

Continue reading "The Danger of Sepsis in Nursing Homes " »

In a previous blog, our nursing home negligence attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland discussed a recent lawsuit verdict, where a jury handed Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., a nursing home company based in California, a $677 million verdict over nursing home negligence due to understaffing in the homes.

According to Bloomberg news, Skilled Healthcare announced a $50 million lawsuit settlement today, in an effort to avoid the $677 million verdict in damages—what Bloomberg calls the largest award announced in the U.S. this year, by the Humboldt County jury in July.

In the July verdict, Skilled Healthcare was found to be negligent for violating state regulations by failing to properly staff the number of nurses required for duty in the 22 facilities throughout California.

According to California State law, nursing homes are required to provide 3.2 hours of direct skilled nursing care per day, per patient. The federal recommendation standard for nursing requirements is reportedly 4.1 nursing hours per patient. As part of the settlement, the facilities operating the nursing homes will be responsible for providing the legally mandated nurse staffing, and complying with federal and state regulations on staffing.

Continue reading "Skilled Healthcare Announces Nursing Home Lawsuit Settlement—After Recent $677 M Verdict" »

As Washington D.C. nursing home negligence attorneys, we have been watching a recent lawsuit where a Humboldt County jury slapped a California nursing home company with a $677 million verdict over staffing.

According to Cindy Cool, whose father was a resident of Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, she would often come to visit the home and find her father wearing clothes that were soaked in urine, due to nursing home negligence. Cool claimed that it would often take more than 20 minutes to find a staff member to help care for her father.

Cool is a member of the class-action lawsuit that represents over 30,000 patients that blame the nursing home for abuse and negligence due to staff shortages—a reportedly common complaint with for-profit nursing homes across the country, that homes are more concerned with money than the nursing home care. Cool provided a key testimony last month, which led to the jury deciding on a $677 million verdict.

Cool’s father lived in a home that is operated by Skilled Healthcare, and last month the jury found that the public corporation violated state regulations numerous times, by failing to maintain the number of nurses required for duty, 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day, in its 22 nursing homes throughout the state. The federal recommendation standard for nursing requirements is 4.1 nursing hours per patient.

Continue reading "For-profit Nursing Home Industry Slammed in $677 Million Nursing Home Verdict" »

In a recent nursing home lawsuit verdict that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have read about, the stepdaughter of a former nursing home resident has been awarded $400,000 after years of fighting to hold the home accountable for the nursing home abuse of her step father.

According to the lawsuit, John J. Donahue was a nursing home resident of Embassy House in Brockton, Massachusetts, that is owned by Kindred Healthcare. While a resident at the home, in 2005, Donahue’s left eye was reportedly gouged by the metal safety hook on a machine that one of the employees used to move him from his bed. The state investigation into the case stated that the machine used on Donahue was supposed to be operated by two employees and not one, which the lawsuit claimed was negligent on the part of the nursing home.

Donahue’s eye had to be surgically removed after the incident, and he died 46 days later at the age of 93, from sepsis, a blood infection, that reportedly came from a result of the eye removal. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition, when bacteria enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body. Sepsis progresses rapidly and can cause organ failure and death.

The jury reportedly found the nursing home negligent in failing to prevent the eye injury, and awarded Donahue’s stepdaughter $400,000 plus interest for suffering, pain and disfigurement while a resident of the home. Kindred was not held accountable for Donahue’s death.

Continue reading "Jury Awards Stepdaughter with $400,000 in Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit Verdict" »

In a related blog, our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys discussed the use of chemical restraints in nursing homes, and the recent indictment of a registered nurse from Britthaven of Chapel Hill Nursing Home, after a nursing home resident died from a morphine overdose. The nurse, 44-year-old Angela Almore was charged last month with one count of second-degree murder, and six counts of felony resident abuse, for over-medicating residents with morphine, that allegedly caused hospitalization and wrongful death.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that they are recommending that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should fine Britthaven nursing home the maximum allowed fine by federal law, $20,000.

The nearly 100-page report based on the investigation performed by the North Carolina Nursing Home Licensure and Certificate Section reportedly revealed details of patient lethargy and altered states with the residents who tested positive for opiates.

The Herald-Sun reports that further investigation from the toxicology reports indicate that 14 residents out of 29 in the Alzheimer’s wing at Britthaven tested positive for opiates in February. Not one of these patients had prescriptions for opiate medication. Rachel Holliday, an 84-year old resident, and one of the hospitalized patients with high levels of morphine in her system, died on February 16, 2010 from pneumonia due to reported morphine toxicity.

Britthaven was reportedly investigated after patients were hospitalized from the Alzheimer’s wing of the nursing home, which lead to the discovery of opiates in their blood. A criminal investigation was launched in February by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Unit, and The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), to investigate for nursing home abuse or neglect, over-medication, or chemical restraint in an effort to make the nursing home residents more manageable.

Continue reading " Report Recommends CMS to Fine Britthaven Nursing Home for Wrongful Death" »

Our Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys in Washington D.C. have been following the recent news from state of Kentucky, that Governor Beshear has asked for an investigation on how Kentucky is handling nursing home neglect and abuse reports, after a recent investigation by the Lexington Herald-Leader found serious problems with the system, as reported in our previous blog.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, from 2007 to 2010, 107 citations were issued by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services that endangered the health and safety of nursing home residents. The newspaper discovered that only seven out of the over 100 cases of nursing home abuse or deaths were ever prosecuted criminally.

Although the state reportedly hands serious violations of nursing home laws and regulations to the attorney general’s office, the attorney general can only prosecute if the local prosecutors grant the attorney general permission. And the local prosecutors claim that they are rarely made aware of such cases. Also, police and coroners are reportedly rarely alerted of nursing home deaths or serious injuries in nursing homes.

The Herald-Leader reported that of the 107 citations that were investigated, there were eighteen deaths, thirty occurrences of hospitalization, 5 incidents involving residents with bones broken, and two instances of amputation that reportedly were a result of nursing home state law and regulation violations. The citations also claimed that three residents experienced nursing home injuries after staff members failed to provide proper health care.

Continue reading "Kentucky Governor Orders a Review of Nursing Home Sexual Abuse Cases" »

In recent news, that our Hartford, Maryland Nursing Home Injury Attorneys have been following, a nursing home abuse lawsuit has brought to light the problem of unreported sexual abuse incidents in Kentucky nursing homes.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Mae Campbell, an 88-year old, was sexually abused two times while being a resident at Hazard Nursing Home. Campbell suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, and was reportedly sitting in a hallway last year, in view of other staff members and a nursing supervisor, when a male nursing home resident sexually assaulted her by ejaculating onto her face. She was reportedly sexually abused three months later by another male resident of the home who had allegedly entered her room to perform a similar sexual act. The nurse on duty was told by her supervisor not to discuss the incident with anyone because Campbell had not been harmed.

Under Kentucky law, staff members and officials of nursing homes are legally mandated to report nursing home neglect or abuse. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services issued the home a Type A citation, claiming that Hazard Nursing Home did not follow state regulations and failed to protect Campbell from sexual contact that was unwanted, failed to protect her health and safety as a resident, failed to report the sexual abuse allegations to the necessary state agencies, and failed to investigate the sexual abuse allegations thoroughly.

The Herald-Leader reported that Campbell’s sexual abuse was only discovered after depositions in a wrongful death case led to a former nurse’s aide’s description of Campbell’s sexual assault, where the former employee claimed that she stopped working at Hazard Nursing Home after the incident, as she thought the home should have protected Campbell better. Another former nurse also admitted to witnessing Campbell’s other assault. She was told not to discuss it with anybody—because Campbell had not been harmed.

Continue reading "Sexual Abuse in Kentucky Nursing Homes" »

In yesterday’s blog, our attorneys discussed the prevalence of pressure sores in nursing homes and assisted living residences, that often result in injury or wrongful death.

In a recent wrongful death lawsuit, the family of Frances Graham, a former 81-year old resident of an assisted living home in San Leandro, California, is suing Graham’s doctor, as well as the assisted living home, after Graham suffered from nursing home violence and devastating pressure sores all over her body, some reportedly as large as a baseballs—that lead to her tragic death. Graham’s family is also suing the nonprofit responsible for her care, the Center for Elders Independence, claiming that they put profits over her nursing home health and safety.

According to the suit, Graham was kept at the Andrew Elijah residential care home even though laws require that Alzheimer’s patients are cared for by a nursing staff that is skilled for such illnesses. Graham reportedly shared a room with a 72-year old dementia patient, who in June of last year, was found attacking Graham with a plastic hair pick. Graham suffered dozens of cuts on her body, and her left eye was bleeding and also bruised. Graham was reportedly treated by a doctor, and sent back to the Andrew Elijah home and put in a room that was private.

Graham’s son claims that soon after, Graham was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia, where a doctor discovered multiple bedsores on her body, so many that the doctors wrote in the notes that they weren’t sure that they even seen them all. The worst sore was allegedly a 4-inch hole that had eaten down to the tendons and smelled horribly. The doctor also found her to be anemic and dehydrated. Graham was moved to another health care center, and died two days later.

Continue reading "The Prevalence of Pressure Sores—Family Sues Assisted Living Home for Negligence" »

Pressure sores, also known as bedsores or decubitus ulcers, plague nearly one million Americans every year, and are a leading cause of nursing home injury, as our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys reported in a recent blog.

Pressure sores develop after an individual rests for too long in one position without moving, cutting off the blood supply to a resident’s skin, forming sores from the pressure on the skin that is unrelieved. Nursing homes residents who are elderly and immobile are highly vulnerable to pressure ulcers. Many advanced decubitus ulcer cases are often the result of nursing home abuse and neglect, and can end in wrongful death. Around sixty thousand people reportedly die each year from complications of some of the more advanced stages of bedsores.

In a recent wrongful death lawsuit, a hospital is being charged with allegedly failing to prevent, treat, and monitor the pressure sores of a patient, causing him to develop serious infections that allegedly lead to his wrongful death.

According to the suit, William B. McCuller became a resident of Memorial Hospital and Memorial Convalescent Center in April of last year, where he developed pressure ulcers that became infected. The hospital and center staff are being accused of negligence, for failing to properly treat McCuller, failing to monitor and care for his bedsores properly, failing to identify him as a high risk patient for bedsores, and failing to identify the early states of ulcer occurrence. The staff is also being accused of neglecting to treat McCuller with the proper wound prevention and treatment protocol, and to properly train their staff on the prevention protocol as well.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Lawsuit Blames Nursing Home for Untreated Pressure Sores" »

In a recent blog, our nursing home injury attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC discussed a news story involving a Baltimore, Maryland nursing home that moved 150 residents out of the center after the building’s air conditioning system malfunctioned—failing to keep residents cool during a heat wave, and reportedly affecting the health and safety of the residents.

This week, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) released a lengthy report, after conducting a thorough investigation, and claimed that the Ravenswood Nursing Home gave nursing home residents a “substandard” quality of care that resulted in “actual harm” to the residents.

Maryland regulators reportedly fined Ravenswood $52,500 after the air conditioning malfunction left residents sweltering in nearly 100-degree heat in the nursing home.

In the DHMH report, six state and federal violations were reportedly cited, that focus on the air conditioning problem. The report also found that the nursing home facility was storing food that was potentially hazardous at unsafe temperatures, the building was not in good shape, and that the nursing home residents were receiving inadequate care, treatment and services.

Continue reading "Maryland Nursing Home Fined, Report Says Facility Harmed Residents in A/C Malfunction" »

In a recent blog, our Baltimore, Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys discussed the recent relocation of 220 nursing home residents, after an unprecedented heat wave in Baltimore lead to air conditioning malfunctions that closed two nursing homes—in an effort to protect the health and safety of the residents until the center’s heating and cooling systems are repaired.

The Maryland Office of Health Care Quality (OHCQ) issued a “Code Red – Heat Alert” last week, along with the Baltimore City Health Department, cautioning all Maryland licensed health care and residential facilities to implement appropriate plans to ensure the health and safety of residents while the outside temperatures are near or above 100°F.

The health department made recommendations for nursing homes to:

• Relocate resident activities to cooler areas, and caution nursing home residents to cut back on outdoor activities during the extremely hot days to prevent nursing home injury or illness.
• Monitor and address the behavior of dementia patients, or confused patients who may want to be wrapped in blankets, or wear too many clothes.
• Make sure the cold water is constantly available for residents, and offer it frequently.
• To keep residents cool, offer ice packs, or washcloths that are cool and wet, to help them endure the heat. Also give residents baths or shower that are cool, or lukewarm in temperature.
• As nursing home A/C systems will be operating at their maximum potential during the heat wave, contact maintenance staff to check the A/C systems, and perform required maintenance measures in advance, to prevent system failures.
• Rearrange any nursing home equipment or furniture that may be blocking any vents on the walls or floor to improve air circulation and make sure that the movement of air is not obstructed.
• Check the operation of all refrigerators and ice makers in facilities that do not have A/C or where kitchens are not cooled with A/C, to make sure that the refrigeration units are maintaining the correct temperatures.
• Make sure all medications for residents are stored at the temperatures listen on the packaging or prescription labels. Relocate the drugs to secure storage if necessary, to prevent any nursing home negligence or injury.
• Turn off any unnecessary lights that do not impact any activity for residents or staff, and close the curtains to keep out the hot sun. Also avoid the use of heat producing equipment like vacuums, stoves, or ovens.

Continue reading " Maryland OHCQ Issues Code Red Heat Alert for Nursing Homes" »

In recent Baltimore, Maryland nursing home news, the Ravenwood Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in downtown Baltimore closed its doors last week, moving 150 residents out of the center due to safety concerns—after the building’s air conditioning system malfunctioned, failing to keep residents cool in the city’s scorching heat.

Although many residents claimed that the malfunction occurred on Friday, July 2, it was determined by authorities to occur on Sunday. Many residents claimed that their complaints were not heard, until a Ravenwood resident called 911 on Monday for help. The temperature inside the building was reportedly 92 degrees at the time.

The center could reportedly face new environmental deficiencies, as it did not report the issues until a few days after the nursing home had been without air conditioning. Ravenwood is currently under investigation by the state Office of Health Care and Quality to make sure that the home followed proper procedure, to ensure the health and safety of the residents.

The Ravenwood staff claimed to do everything that they could to make sure that the residents were not in medical danger during the period of time without air conditioning. Many of the residents are vulnerable adults who need special medical attention, some of whom are under 65 and suffer from a variety of medical conditions, including amputation, HIV/AIDS, and paralysis.

Continue reading "Maryland Residents Moved Out of Nursing Home After A/C Malfunctions" »

In recent news that our Baltimore, Maryland Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys have been following, the family of a patient who died from an overdose of morphine while receiving physical therapy at a nursing home, has been awarded $4.85 million—after accusing the home of nursing home negligence and wrongful death in a lawsuit.

According to the civil lawsuit filed by the family in 2005, Burr Needham, arrived in the center on April 26, 2002, to receive physical therapy for a hip fracture, and was administered a lethal overdose of morphine. The suit accused Dr. Arun Gupta and a staff of five nurses at the home of nursing home negligence, causing the 76-year-old’s wrongful death on May 2nd.

According to the medical examiner, the death was a homicide, caused by severe morphine intoxication. The documentation in the suit showed that the staff at the nursing home was unable to account for the dosage of morphine administered to Needham.

The jury ruled that the staff was professionally negligent, and awarded Mrs. Needham, who died of cancer in 2007, $3 million for the loss of companionship she experienced after her husband died. The jury also awarded $1.5 million for Needham’s suffering and pain, and $350,000 in damages.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $4.85 Million to Family in Nursing Home Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

In recent blog, our Baltimore, Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys discussed the topic of chemical restraints, in regard to a February case, where Britthaven of Chapel Hill Nursing Home was investigated by local and state authorities after Alzheimer’s patients tested positive for opiates that had not been prescribed to them.

This month, Angela Almore, a 44-year old registered nurse, was indicted in the case, on one count of second-degree murder in relation to the death of Rachel Holliday, a resident of the nursing home who died after being given a heavy dose of morphine. Almore was also charged with six counts of felony resident abuse, related to administering morphine to several patients of the nursing home, causing hospitalization.

The investigation reportedly began after a few patients from the Alzheimer’s wing of the nursing home were hospitalized for odd behavior, which led to the discovery of opiates in their blood. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Unit, with the Orange County District Attorney, launched a criminal investigation of the nursing home in February to determine if the patients were being over-medicated, abused or neglected, or being subjected to chemical restraint.

The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office claims that after testing, nine out of over twenty-five Alzheimer’s patients at the nursing home tested positive for opiates in February. Holliday, one of the hospitalized patients with high levels of morphine in her system, died on February 16, 2010.

Continue reading " Nurse Indicted for Chemical Restraint Leading to Nursing Home Resident’s Death" »

In a recent nursing home abuse case that our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC discussed in a blog, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was sued, after nursing home residents were reportedly subjected to a pattern of nursing home abuse over a period of around five months by nursing assistants in 2008.

Another lawsuit was filed last week in the same elder abuse incident, seeking damages from Good Samaritan, and accusing the supervisors of nursing home negligence for failing to screen employees to prevent abuse. The lawsuit claims that the nursing home failed to properly supervise the four nursing assistants, who are accused of abusing patients in a sexual, physical and emotional way.

In the original case filed earlier this year, the four former nursing assistants were accused of physically and emotionally abusing fifteen Alzheimer’s and dementia patients while videotaping the abuse. The nurses were accused of civil assault, battery and causing emotional distress, and the nursing home was accused of failing to protect the elderly residents from abuse and neglect, and neglecting to properly supervise the nursing aides.

This is the fourth civil lawsuit filed in South Dakota connected with the case, filed on behalf of Beverly Butts. It is similar to the Freeborn County case from January, but the reported victims named in the case have since died, and according to the Globe Gazette, when Minnesota victims die, liability goes away. But family members of the victim can pursue claims in South Dakota, as Sioux Falls is the headquarters for the nursing home chain.

Continue reading "Another Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence Lawsuit Against Good Samaritan and Former Aides" »

A wrongful death lawsuit has recently been brought against Brandon Woods of Dartmouth nursing home, by the family of Elizabeth W. Barrow, a 100-year old resident of the facility who was allegedly strangled to death last year by her roommate, who was 98-years old.

Barrow reportedly shared a room with Laura Lundquist, a 98-year old who has been diagnosed with having dementia and paranoia. According to Barrow’s son Scott, Lundquist allegedly harassed his mother for weeks, making her life miserable because she was jealous of all the attention that Barrow received, as well as the window view. Scott Barrow reportedly asked for the women to be separated, but according to the director of the home, Scott Picone, Barrow declined the option of moving rooms. Picone said the two roommates acted like “sisters” and took walks together.

On September 24th of last year, Elizabeth Barrow was reportedly strangled to death in her bed with a plastic bad. The autopsy revealed that she died by means of asphyxiation, but also received blunt force trauma to her arms, leg, skull and chest. Lundquist has been charged with the murder.

The lawsuit claims that the nursing home staff and executive director were negligent, as they were responsible for providing his mother with a safe environment, and they failed. He claims that as a result of the nursing home’s carelessness and negligence, Barrow was forced to suffer consciously until the time of her death.

Continue reading "Family of 100-year old Nursing Home Resident files Wrongful Death Suit Against Home" »

In a recent blog, our Baltimore, Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys discussed a new Maryland initiative, led by the Maryland Patient Safety Center (MPSC), to reduce the number of nursing home resident falls that can result in nursing home injury and deaths throughout the country.

According to the CDC, more than 1,800 people die in nursing home falls every year. In 2003, 1.5 million people over the age of 65 reportedly lived in nursing homes. The CDC projects that if this rate continues to rise, by 2030, there will be around 3 million nursing home residents—so understanding and evaluating nursing home falls and ways of preventing them is necessary for the health and safety of nursing home residents, to prevent nursing home injury and wrongful death.

Nursing home falls can be linked to the result of many health problems, including older residents who are weak, have difficulty caring for themselves or have difficulty walking, have chronic health conditions, or residents who have memory problems like Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Among the most common causes of nursing home falls are muscle weaknesses and walking problems, leading to 24% of falls. Environmental hazards like wet floors, poorly fitted wheelchairs, bad lighting, or improper bed heights, have also lead to a reported 16-27% of nursing home falls. Medications can also increase the risk of falls, especially if a patient is taking drugs that affect the nervous system, like sedatives or anti-anxiety drugs. Physical restraints, the controversial method used to try and keep residents from falling, can actually increase the risk of fall-related injuries and wrongful deaths.

Nursing home falls can also be caused by poorly trained staff, understaffing, or by using incorrect or outdated equipment to transfer or transport nursing home residents properly.

Continue reading "CDC Guide to Nursing Home Fall Prevention" »

Our Baltimore, Maryland attorneys have been following the recent nursing home news, that a nurse’s assistant at an Illinois nursing home has been charged with aggravated battery for removing medication from a patch on the back of an incapacitated resident—engaging in nursing home abuse for personal drug use.

According to Eugene Lowery, Crystal Lake's Deputy Police Chief, Jeremiah Healless, a 25-year old certified nurse’s assistant who worked at the Fair Oaks Health Care Center, would enter the room of a 92-year old resident, roll her to one side, and make holes in resident’s fentanyl medication patch with a pin, a drug given to residents who are in ceaseless pain. Healless would then reportedly steal the drug by squeezing the patch, and then licking the drug from his fingers.

The nursing home staff started to suspect that something was amiss when the resident's patch started to become discolored. After asking the woman’s family for permission, as the resident has mental and physical incapacities, the staff set up a hidden surveillance camera in her room to monitor for nursing home abuse.

Healless was subsequently caught forcing the drug out of the patient's patch on camera and was immediately fired from his position and arrested. He reportedly made other incriminating statements to the police.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Aide Steals Drug By Licking Painkiller Patch on Resident’s Back" »

In a recent nursing home injury blog, our Washington D.C.-based attorneys reported on a current case in Northern California, where a nursing home is being accused of recklessly poor resident care and nursing home negligence, leading to the wrongful death of Frances Tanner, a Stockton native.

On Wednesday of this week, Colonial Healthcare was found guilty of elder abuse, and Tanner’s daughter, Elizabeth Pao was awarded $1.1 million in monetary damages for Tanner’s suffering and pain, after enduring a nursing home fall in 2005 that broke her hip and led to a bedsore that became so infected it reportedly took her life.

Colonial Healthcare, over the course of the two week trial, has been accused of poor care, chronic and extreme understaffing, nursing home corporate greed, and failing to care for Tanner in every way—by allowing her to fall and break her hip, neglecting to record her level of treatment and care, and neglecting to prevent the bed sores that after becoming so infected, lead to her death.

According to the Sacramento Bee, yesterday, in the second phase of the case, the jury panel awarded $28 million in punitive damages for Frances Tanner’s abuse and wrongful death, in an effort to send a message to Horizon West Healthcare and its company leaders to stop the chronic understaffing and substandard care that has lead to nursing home negligence and resident death. The jury reportedly decided on the punitive damages after hearing evidence in court about the finances of the corporation—the corporation is reportedly worth around $200 million. This is said to be the largest elder-abuse award in Sacramento County history.

Continue reading "Jury Demands Nursing Home Pays $28 Million in Punitive Damages for Elder Abuse Case" »

Our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys recently wrote a blog about a series of violent elder abuse incidents that occurred in Veterans nursing homes in the state of Texas, as published in the Dallas Morning News.

The Dallas newspaper has recently reported that after publishing the articles last month, legislators in the Senate have now taken notice, and raised questions about the safety and management of the state-owned veterans nursing home facilities this week, with two Senate committee hearings.

Last month, the Dallas Morning Star found that the criminal investigation of two former nursing home workers, accused of nursing home abuse, were stalled for two years because of conflicts between the state inspectors, police, and nursing home administrators.

When the police reportedly looked into the nursing home abuse allegations in 2007, police officers defaulted to the state inspectors. In March, felony charges were finally filed against the former nursing home employees, accusing them of harming two residents in the separate 2007 incidents.

Continue reading "Senate Pushes Reform After Alleged Nursing Home Abuse in Veterans Home" »

As Washington D.C. Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys, we have been following a recent case of elder abuse, where a Sacramento County Superior Court jury found a nursing home guilty for the 2005 wrongful death of a Northern California resident.

Frances Tanner, a former administrative worker who had been employed by various agencies including the FBI and the IRS, reportedly moved into Colonial Healthcare, a nursing home in Auburn, California, in March of 2005 at the age of 79. Although she was suffering from mild dementia, Tanner was reportedly mobile, strong, talkative and in great spirits.

In September of 2005, Tanner suffered a nursing home fall and broke her hip. According to the lawsuit testimony, Tanner was not properly diagnosed with a hip fracture for another eight days, during which time a bed sore was discovered. After the surgery, the bed sore progressed rapidly, and Tanner reportedly died a few weeks later from a massive infection of the pressure sore that caused her great pain and suffering.

During the course of past two weeks, the home has been accused of poor care, chronic and extreme understaffing, and nursing home corporation greed. Colonial was accused of recklessly failing to care for Tanner in every way—by allowing her to endure a broken hip, failing to keep accurate notes on her treatment and care, and neglecting to prevent or care for the bed sore that allegedly killed her.

Today, the jury awarded Elizabeth Pao, Tanner’s daughter, $1.1 million in monetary damages for Tanner’s suffering and pain, and for the loss of companionship. The punitive damages will be announced on Thursday.

Continue reading "Jury Delivers Elder Abuse Verdict—Nursing Home to Pay $1.1 Million for Wrongful Death" »

In a recent wrongful death and negligence settlement that our Baltimore Nursing Home Attorneys have been following, the family of a nursing home resident was awarded $190,000 in damages, after the resident suffocated in her bed.

According to the lawsuit, Lottie D’Aust, a resident of Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center, in New York, died from suffocation after getting trapped between a bed rail and the mattress—a common and tragic cause of personal injury and wrongful death in nursing homes, and a topic that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have been discussing in a recent blog.

The Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.), reports that from 1985 to 2008 nearly 772 incidents have occurred where hospital and nursing home patients have been trapped, stuck, or suffocated due to strangulation in beds that had rails. Out of this number, staff rescued 176 residents before they became injured, 136 experienced nonfatal personal injuries, and 460 residents died.

Although bed rails were designed as an aid to help patients maneuver their positions in the bed, and give security to the residents, many of these patients often experience bed rail entrapment, like Lottie D’Aust, getting caught in the space between the mattress and the bedrails, causing personal injury, strangulation, suffocation, and even wrongful death.

Continue reading "Bed Rail Suffocation Settlement in Nursing Home Case—Family Paid $190,000" »

In a previous blog, our Maryland-based Nursing Home Attorneys discussed a nursing home abuse case involving employees from Madison Manor, one of the Richmond Health and Rehabilitation Complex homes in Kentucky, who pleaded guilty of resident abuse.

This week, another lawsuit was brought against one of the Richmond complex homes—Kenwood Nursing Home. Charles Brock, the son of former patient Margaret Brock, is accusing the home of wrongful death, alleging that the nursing home administrators and employees failed to provide Brock’s mother with quality care, and protect her legal right to nursing home heath and safety.

According to the lawsuit, Margaret Brock, was admitted Kenwood Nursing Home on August 27, 2008 at the age of 80. Brock’s son claims that the home violated multiple nursing home health and safety regulations during her stay at the home—that lead to her wrongful death.

Brock claims that while under the care of Kenwood nursing home, his mother suffered nursing home falls, medication errors, malnutrition, dehydration, and pneumonia. Brock also reportedly suffered infections in the home including sepsis, methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus, as well as great amounts of pain and eventually death.

Continue reading "Another Wrongful Death Lawsuit for Nursing Home Complex" »

In a recent blog, our Washington D.C.-based Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys discussed the prevalence of violent elder abuse incidents including nursing home falls occurring in seven veterans homes in the state of Texas, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.

According to the state’s Department of Aging and Disability Services, inspections in the Amarillo veterans home uncovered a series of nursing home neglect incidents and resident falls. In one case an elderly patient with Alzheimer’s was allegedly found on the floor, after the neck of her nightgown got stuck in the bedrails, causing redness around her neck. After an investigation, it was discovered that this patient had been previously assessed and that staff members were supposed to assist the woman get in and out of bed, to prevent nursing home falls and personal injury. The assessment did not order restraints, which are controversial, but sometimes used to prevent falls, a topic that our lawyers discussed a few weeks ago in a blog.

In another nursing home fall incident at the Big Spring home, one of the seven veterans nursing homes has been cited for several violations since 2004, a man who was known to be at risk of falling out of bed was reportedly not carefully monitored and fell twice in the bathroom, experiencing personal injury both times. Another man experienced a fall after his bed rolled—as there was no system established for ensuring that the beds were locked into place. Another resident who needed supervision from nursing home falls and wandering was found on the floor at least four times in a period of less than two months.

In another wandering case in Big Spring Home, where felony charges were filed against two employees last month for nursing home abuse, a resident was found eighty feet from the nursing home building after being left unattended in his wheelchair. He was allegedly found lying on the cement with a swollen face and spent two days in the hospital.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Falls and Injury in Veterans State Homes" »

As Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys, we have been following a recent story from the Dallas Morning News, covering nursing home abuse incidents and allegations surrounding seven veterans nursing homes in Texas that are state-owned.

According to the article, regulators have repeatedly found abuse and neglect problems in the Texas homes, which are open to veterans and their spouses who are Texas residents, and did not receive dishonorable discharge.

One of the homes with nursing home abuse incidents was at the Lamun-Lusk-Sanchez State Home for veterans in Big Springs, where John Harris, a 97-year old World war II veteran lived before he died in 2007. A nurse aide reported that she witnessed a colleague grab the resident from his wheelchair and shove him so aggressively into the bed that he was hospitalized that night complaining of pain in his hip. In another incident from the same year, Albert Teague, a Marine who had once served at Iwo Jima reportedly experienced nursing home violence, when an employee allegedly punched and choked at the home.

The article states the criminal investigation into these two cases was drawn out because of a bureaucratic jumble over who should perform the investigation—home administrators, local police, or state officials. Last month, felony charges were finally filed against the former employees.

Continue reading "Investigations of Elder Abuse at State Veterans Home" »

In recent Maryland Nursing Home News, the state has received the results of the 2009 National Healthcare Quality Report, first ordered by Congress in 2003, to monitor the quality of healthcare, including nursing homes across the country.

The report is published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and according to the study, the overall the quality of Maryland’s health care rates between weak and average.

According to the Ethan Moore, the Health Policy Director of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland, Maryland nursing homes reportedly provided “expert care” in the 2009 study, but the critical issue Moore expects to arise in Maryland’s future is providing the projected explosion of the 65-year and older adult residents with proper Maryland nursing home healthcare and safety in the next twenty years.

Moore stated that Maryland has neither the budget nor capacity to take care of this future increase of seniors in nursing homes—but hopes that the state can find a solution to provide residents with quality care nursing homes and communities that are free from nursing home abuse and neglect in the future.

Continue reading "Maryland Nursing Homes Rated in National Healthcare Quality Report" »

In recent news that Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys have been following, Attorney General for the State of New York Andrew Cuomo announced this week that twenty-two health care employees, both former and current, have been arrested after hidden camera footage in two separate nursing homes revealed alleged abuse and neglect as well as other behavior that harmed the health and safety of residents.

Cuomo claimed that his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) is using hidden surveillance cameras in nursing homes all over the state of New York, with the consent of family members, to make sure that residents are receiving the nursing home care that they lawfully deserve. Cuomo and his team are reportedly setting a precedent in this country, for using surveillance cameras to investigate the possible nursing home abuse and neglect of patients in nursing homes. The MFCU has, to date, convicted 30 nursing home workers based on the results of the hidden cameras.

The first case announced this week involved the arrest of 14 health care workers at Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility, after six weeks of footage revealed that the workers failed to consistently turn residents who were immobile, neglected to check or care for bedsores, routinely failed to give patients necessary medications, or check residents for incontinence and change residents’ undergarments in a timely manner. The medical records were also allegedly falsified to reflect a level of care that was not being administered.

The second case involving incidents at Williamsville Suburban Nursing Home, lead to the arrest of 8 workers. The investigation took place over a seven-week period of time, and revealed that staff failed to use a mechanical lift assisted by two other caregivers to properly transfer residents to and from the bed—causing a great potential for nursing home falls and injury. The footage also showed that patients weren’t given insulin, weren’t treated for wounds on the skin, and weren’t checked for vital signs, or given range of motion exercises. The resident’s medical records were also falsified to conceal neglect.

Continue reading "NY Nursing Home Hidden Cameras Capture Neglect—22 Health Care Workers Arrested" »

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 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 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

Our Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys have been following the recent story about a New York nursing home that is hoping to use new Israeli devices that can reportedly track wandering nursing home patients to maintain resident health and safety, and prevent nursing home falls or injury.

According to the article, the Hebrew Home, a prominent nursing home in New York, has been awarded a special legislation by New York State to try a new healthcare project, as part of the Managed Long-Term Care of the state.

The goal of the Hebrew Home’s CEO, Dan Reingold is to work with cutting edge technology companies and government officials in Israel to utilize innovative technologies, to find ways to maintain the health and safety of the residents, provide quality care, reduce nursing home falls with frail patients or patients experiencing dementia, and at the same time, cut nursing home costs. Reingold claims that the medical technology in Israel is far more advanced than technologies in the United States.

Some of the new technologies that are being developed focus on monitoring patients with devices that can keep track of how much time a person spends in bed, as well as monitoring patients who have a tendency to wander, and are at risk for falls or nursing home injury.

Continue reading "NY Nursing Home Looks to Israel Technology to Stop Resident Wandering and Falls" »

In a recent nursing home injury blog, our Maryland-based attorneys discussed the epidemic of unnecessary drugging and chemical restraints going on in nursing homes, that can cause nursing home injury and threaten the lives of elderly residents.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil False Claims Act complaint against the drug giant Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly paying millions of dollars in kickback payments to a pharmacy company, in order to boost sales of antipsychotic prescription drugs for nursing home patients—drugs that can be used as chemical restraints with residents, that patients may or may not need.

The complaint alleges that from 1999—2004, pharmacists from Omnicare, the nation’s largest pharmacy, worked intensively to persuade physicians to prescribe Johnson & Johnson drugs in nursing homes, including the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, in exchange for kickback payments. The kickbacks were reportedly delivered to Omnicare in the form of rebates, grants, or educational funding.

Johnson & Johnson reportedly turned to Omnicare to increase the building of market share, knowing that physicians accepted advice on drugs from Omnicare pharmacists more than 80% of the time, and they were seen as an extension of the Johnson & Johnson workforce. The nursing home residents allegedly included people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Continue reading "Johnson & Johnson Accused of Pharmacy Kickbacks" »

In a recent blog on nursing home injury, our Maryland-based attorneys discussed the problem many nursing homes are facing today, of creating a safe environment for residents who live in nursing home facilities with patients who are mentally ill or have violent criminal pasts.

After the Chicago Tribune’s investigative reports over the past few months, fueled by a series of nursing home abuse and assault cases, the publication has shed light on the high numbers of felons and sex offenders that reside in Illinois nursing homes, and how this is affecting the safety of nursing home residents. Last week, twenty federal marshals and the County Cook sheriff’s police, initiated by the Illinois Attorney General’s office, conducted a raid of two Chicago-based homes, looking for felons with outstanding arrest warrants.

After the sweep of the nursing homes, eighteen residents were discovered in the homes who are wanted on charges that vary from burglary and assault to disorderly conduct. The authorities arrested five people, including an unregistered sex offender from another state. According to the Attorney General’s office, this was the first step in an ongoing effort to identify residents in nursing homes who are wanted on arrest warrants.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the number of residents living in Illinois nursing homes who are felons has grown as the state continues to rely on the nursing home facilities to place younger psychiatric patients, many of whom have criminal records, which can endanger resident safety and cause nursing home injury or abuse to older residents.

Continue reading "Sweep in Nursing Home Finds Felons and Sex Offenders with Outstanding Warrants" »

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" »

In recent nursing home abuse news, our Maryland-based Attorneys have been following the case announced last week, where the family of a nursing home resident who sued Fillmore Convalescent Center for elder abuse and was awarded $7.75 million in monetary damages.

According to the lawsuit, in 2006, the family of Maria Arellano, a 71-year-old resident and stroke victim, noticed substantial bruising on Arellano. The family complained to the management at the center, but they did not investigate the bruises. The family then placed a video camera that was hidden to the center and staff—to find out what was happening to the resident in the room.

The camera allegedly caught Monica Garcia, a worker at the center, engaging in nursing home abuse, by pulling Arellano's hair, forcefully bending her neck, wrists and fingers, slapping her, and using violent behavior while bathing her.

After the 22 day trial, Garcia received a criminal charge, and reportedly pleaded no contest to simple battery. The verdict from the trial splits the liability between the three defendants—20 percent to Garcia, 40 percent to the center, and 40 percent to the owner of the center.

Continue reading "Elderly Resident at Nursing Home Wins $7.75 Million in Abuse Case" »

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" »

Our nursing home attorneys have been following a recent report covering the importance of choosing a nursing home in the Maryland and the Washington D.C. area. Choosing a nursing home should be a carefully thought out process, carried out by family members who have a clear sense of the patient’s wishes. Unfortunately, families often have a limited amount of time in which to make this decision, often 48 hours or less—when a family member is about to be discharged from the hospital, and is on the path to needing nursing home care.

The report recommends basic planning tips from experts, so that families on deadline can make the right choice and find the right nursing home environment that provides proper care, promotes resident rights, and is free from nursing home neglect and abuse.

Sarah Wells, the executive director of The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR), a Washington-based nonprofit organization that represents consumers looking for long-term care, stressed the importance of discussing nursing home care expectations—if a family member becomes unable to care for themselves at any state or age of life—so there is a clear understanding of the resident’s preferences and priorities. Wells suggested talking about the most important issues of the nursing home care experience, like meals, music, proximity to family members, and visitor accessibility.

Because many important long-term care nursing home decisions are made in a matter of days and not weeks, many decisions become chaotic and hasty. Families are encouraged to use resources like the federal government’s Nursing Home Compare Website and state nursing-home ombudsmen for advice and data. Wells recommends that families should try and visit a nursing facility at lease twice, and compare the ratings and reports to what they actually experience.

Continue reading "Home vs. Hospital—Basic Planning to Choose the Right Nursing Home Care" »

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" »

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.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Rape Leads to Resident Safety Concerns" »

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.

Continue reading "Unnecessary Drugging in Nursing Homes Threatens Lives of Residents" »

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.

Continue reading "Family Sues Nursing Home for Neglecting Resident’s Penile Cancer" »

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.

Continue reading "Advanced Dementia and Nursing Home Error" »

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.

Continue reading "Repeat Offender—Nursing Home Charged With Third Wrongful Death Lawsuit This Year" »

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" »