Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

Nursing Home Resident Dies in Heat Wave—Home Investigated for Negligence

June 17, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last year’s east coast heat wave in July led to the closing of Baltimore, Maryland’s Ravenwood Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, as our Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog discussed, moving 150 residents out of the facility, as well as 70 residents from Liberty Health and Rehabilitation Center, after the air condition systems in both homes experienced malfunctions, failing to keep residents safe and cool in the dangerous heat.

Maryland officially issued a “Code Red – Heat Alert” cautioning all licensed health care and residential facilities in the state to implement the necessary precautions to make sure to protect the health and safety of all residents inside, while the outside temperatures were hovering at around 100°F.

Earlier this month, Milwaukee, Wisconsin health officials also warned residents to use caution in the current heat wave, as a nursing home resident was left in the scorching heat by caretakers for over three hours, which could have caused his wrongful death.

Martin Belkin, a 69-year-old resident who lived at Sunrise Care Center, reportedly asked to be taken outside to enjoy the warm summer weather. Belkin was left sitting from 2:45 p.m. until 6 p.m. and was unsupervised, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.

Psychiatric Report Says U.S. Needs to Prepare for Increase of Elderly Dementia

June 8, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

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

June 6, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Florida Nursing Homes Investigated for Severe Abuse and Negligence

June 3, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Aide Receives Prison Sentence for Sexual Abuse

May 31, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

French Family Plans Lawsuit in Quadrangle ‘Nanny Cam’ Nursing Home Abuse Case

May 26, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Baltimore, Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed a shocking case of nursing home abuse, that was only discovered after a family installed a hidden camera after witnessing their terrified mother speak of abuse. What they found was harrowing evidence that their mother, a dementia patient, was being physically and emotionally abused by the nursing facility staff, and even made to stand topless during the assault and harassment.

In related news, the nursing home abuse victim, 78-year-old Lois McCallister is now living with her daughter Mary French and her husband. French has recently come forward, speaking for the first time about the abuse case, and how devastating it was to see her beloved mother be abused and beaten.

Last month, as our Prince George’s County nursing home attorneys reported, three nursing home employees from the home, Quadrangle in Haverford, were arrested, on charges ranging from assault, to negligence and misconduct. Mark Ordan, the Chief Operating Officer of Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., who operates Quadrangle, claims that this nursing home abuse was an isolated incident, and that he has been cooperative with the authorities.

French claims that if Ordan would have been cooperative, the home would have reported the early abuse complaints to the Department of Public Welfare in Pennsylvania. But instead, Sunrise ignored McCallister’s initial complaints of abuse, citing her Alzheimer’s disease as the issue. French plans to file a nursing home abuse lawsuit to change how Sunrise treats future nursing home abuse complaints. French hopes that when the next family reports abuse, Sunrise won’t blame it on dementia.

Daughter Sues For Nursing Home Negligence After Mother’s Fall-related Death

May 23, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Hospital Accused of Negligence, Wrongful Death in Patient’s Bed-Fall

May 20, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Hartford County, Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the increase of fall-related injuries across the country, and the importance of developing fall prevention and awareness to protect residents and patients in nursing homes and hospitals.

In a related hospital fall lawsuit, a stroke victim, who was reportedly deemed high-risk for falling when admitted, fell from her bed, and suffered severe fall-related injuries including a broken nose, fractured teeth and black eyes. She reportedly died the following day.

According to the lawsuit, the 76-year old checked into the NCH Naples Hospital emergency room, where she had a stroke in March 2009. Bernadine Minarcin was reportedly found to be at high-risk for falling, so the nurses raised two bed rails and implemented a bed alarm.

Hours later, Minarcin was found on the floor, in a pool of blood—and no alarm had gone off. Minarcin’s husband claims that the nurses were negligent, and breached a standard of care, by failing to keep his wife, a stroke victim, safe in her bed. Minarcin claims that the nurses should have put up three bed rails, which is the required standard of care and would have kept his wife in her bed.

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

Husband Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit File After Wife Dies From Bedsores

May 18, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

The Problem of Fall-related Injuries in Nursing Homes and Hospitals

May 9, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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 Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free consultation, at 1-800-654-1949.