A recent nursing home negligence lawsuit, was filed against an Illinois nursing home after the children of a female elderly resident accused the home of failing to notify them of their mother’s death for a four-month period.
According to the lawsuit, that our Baltimore nursing home lawyers have been observing, Lovera Staples was admitted to Ridgeview Nursing Home in December of 1991 with multiple disabilities that required healthcare assistance with basic activities like eating, walking and bathing.
Staples’ daughter, Mary, claims that a few days after she last visited her mother, she received a call from a nursing home employee claiming that her mother was in the hospital. Mary visited her mother in the hospital, and was informed the next day that she was released and returned to the nursing home.
Mary Staples claims that more than four months after her last visit, she called the nursing home to wish her mother a happy birthday, and the nursing home staff told her that there was no one living at the facility with that name. Staples and her brothers then went to the nursing home to find that their mother had actually died in the Saint Francis Hospital and the home neglected to inform them of her death. The body had reportedly been at the medical examiner’s office since her death, for four months.
The Staples family claim to have made arrangements to have their mother buried on the following day, and found out later that Cook County Department of Health removed the body from the morgue and buried her without the family’s permission. The Staples were told that the nursing home authorized the removal of the body.
The distraught family is reportedly seeking over $50,000 from the home, with claims of emotional stress.
Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represents victims of nursing home abuse and negligence in Maryland and Washington D.C., who have experienced violations of the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987. Contact our attorneys today at 1-800-654-1949 for a free consultation.
Suit: Nursing home didn’t tell family of mother’s death, Chicago Sun-Times, April 21, 2011
Related Web Resources:
National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Related Blog Posts:
Family Awarded Nearly $10M in Nursing Home Neglect and Wrongful Death Lawsuit, Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog, April 22, 2011
Nursing Home Fall leads to Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Motion Picture & Television Fund, Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog, April 4, 2011
Daughter Sues Nursing Home for Negligence After Mother Dies from Pressure Sores, Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog, March 10, 2011