Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse

In truly disturbing news out of Ohio earlier this week, a Maryland man was convicted of abusing a patient after having unwanted sexual contact with a pregnant patient. He plead guilty to the charge and is now serving his sentence of 11 to 60 days in jail and 2 years of probation. He will also be forced to register as a sex offender for 15 years. According to a report by the Baltimore Sun, the man was a nurse in Ohio but was found and arrested in Maryland. He is serving time in an Ohio jail for the offense.

The man had a record of assaulting patients in Ohio. Back in 2012, at Fairview Hospital in Cleveland, he was accused of touching the breast of a woman during her delivery. He also forced her to touch his penis over his pants.

In the most recent case, the man initially plead not guilty to more serious charges, but accepted a plea bargain. He does not have any patient complaints, nor a criminal record, here in Maryland. It is unclear if the man was working as a nurse after the incident but before his arrest.

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Earlier this month in Pennsylvania, a nursing home employee was charged with the assault of an elderly patient for whom she was in charge of caring for. According to a report by a local news agency, the nursing home employee was employed by Guardian Elder Care Center.

The court documents indicate that the patient got into a fight with the nursing aide, and the aide eventually covered her face with a pillow, took some of her belongings, and the left her room. The aide responded that the patient was scratching and biting her, and she held down the patient to prevent injury to herself. She denies covering the patient’s face with a pillow.

The elderly patient, who suffers from dementia, did not suffer permanent injury although she was traumatized by the incident. Other patients in the nursing home have expressed their surprise that the aide lashed out the way she did, explaining “I’m shocked. I didn’t think she was, I didn’t think she was that type. She didn’t look like the mean type.”

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A former nurse is on trial for her role in the death of a 77-year-old nursing home resident that occurred last December. According to a story by WCPO Cincinnati, a witness who was at the nursing home visiting her mother witnessed the abuse that led to the patient’s death.

Apparently, during the woman’s visit with her mother, she witnessed the nurse “yelling at the patient, physically trying to move her from the walker in a pretty violent matter.” Later, the patient lost consciousness in the bathroom, and within 15 minutes she was dead.

About one week later, once allegations of wrongdoing came to light, the nurse was fired by the nursing home facility. In a public statement, the nursing home explained that, “[t]he facility is fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation and will continue to remain committed to providing quality care to the residents on a daily basis.”

The nurse will go to trial later this year and is facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

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The D.C. Court of Appeals decided earlier this year in the appeal of a certified nursing assistant who was convicted of criminal neglect of a vulnerable adult.

The case, TARPEH v. US, 62 A. 3d 1266 – D.C. Ct. App (2013), centers on a discussion of what it means to be criminally reckless, as to meet the standard required to convict someone of criminal neglect of a vulnerable adult.

In Tarpeh, the appellant was a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), and was assigned the atypical task of transporting a patient, whose residence unit she did not typically work within, to a dental appointment in the D.C. area, an area in which she had never been. The result was essentially a disaster.

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A Missouri family believes that their 86 year old mother with Alzheimer’s was abused in a nursing home where she was living.

The nursing home initially called the family to inform them that the woman had fallen in her bedroom. Her daughter reports that her mother’s eye was swollen shut, following what the home stated was a bad fall. The family members did not believe that a fall could have caused the injuries.

The woman’s daughter stated that the pictures from the hospital show her mother suffered a broken nose, broken cheekbones and bruising to her eye, and that she believes someone assaulted her mother, on at least one occasion. The family reportedly received conflicting stories regarding how their mother allegedly fell.

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A Delaware jury recently convicted a certified nursing assistant of abusing an 89 year old woman at a local nursing home. The specific charges were patient abuse and mistreatment of an impaired adult, stemming from an incident where the assistant allegedly placed a trash bag over the elderly woman’s head as she sat in her wheelchair last February. The victim, who suffered from severe dementia, was not injured.

She was additionally ordered to stay away from any facility providing care for the elderly during the course of her six month probation period. Additionally, following notification of the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services, the agency can further bar the woman from working in a facility that receives federal health care funds for a minimum of five years.
While this incident reportedly took place in Delaware, it could just as easily have happened in Maryland, or any other state. Nursing home abuse is far more common than we would like to believe. Sometimes, as in this case, the victim isn’t physically harmed, but the true ramifications of the abuse may never be known. Additionally, what is further troubling about this case in particular is that there is no guarantee, nor in fact any legal barrier, that will ensure that this woman is prevented from resuming as a certified nursing assistant in another nursing home once her six month probation term comes to an end.

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Earlier this month in Florida, the owner of an adult care home was charged in regards to multiple allegations related to the mistreatment of residents, which included such things as abusing residents, failure to provide an adequate number of beds, restraining a resident with handcuffs, and other crimes.

According to a statement from the Florida Attorney General, the formal charges against the woman included neglect of a disabled adult, false imprisonment, aggravated abuse and exploitation.

Authorities allege that the owner failed to provide medical services for at least one resident’s wounds, did not provide an adequate number of beds for residents of the home, restrained at least one disabled adult with handcuffs, abused at least one disabled adult causing wounds on her wrists and permanent disfigurement, and additionally failed to pay at least two disabled adult residents their required monthly personal needs allowance. According to the Attorney General’s statement, the woman is facing up to 60 years in prison and $40,000 in fines.

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According to the Attorney General in New York, a nurse’s aide was arrested recently based on allegations that she physically and mentally abused an elderly woman under her care in a nursing home.

The aide was charged with one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, two counts of willful violation of health laws, and one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person or an incompetent or physically disabled person.

According to reports, the aide led the patient to her room in August, where the patient then became difficult, and hit the aide in the face. The aide allegedly then grabbed the woman by the wrist and twisted her arm behind her head, causing her wrist to fracture. The aide additionally allegedly hit the woman in the face with the woman’s own hand, and then with a pair of urine soaked undergarments.

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A Sheriff’s Department in Georgia is investigating a claim that a nursing home staff member allegedly physically abused a patient. The incident was allegedly reported by both a family member and another staff member at the facility.

An 86-year-old woman was hospitalized with bruises and a broken bone that she suffered allegedly as a result of the incident at a care facility. The Sheriff’s Office stated that it will use forensic evidence from the woman’s physician to determine how she received the injuries.

A local ombudsman reports that in her opinion, accidents such as this one are usually not intentional, but happen due to a lack of training or other accidents. In those cases, the facility should focus on better training its staff in order to prevent future incidents from occurring. She also reiterates the common message of being involved with the nursing home by visiting on a regular basis and getting to know the staff, in order to ensure that your loved one is receiving good care.

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Trial has reportedly begun in the case of a former nursing home employee accused of assaulting a patient last November.

The defendant pleaded not guilty earlier this year to the charge of abuse of a disabled adult. She faces up to two years in prison if convicted. The charges stem from allegations that the woman abused a 76 year old resident while giving the woman medication last November. Specific allegations include claims that the defendant pulled the patient by her hair, used a knee to pin down the patient’s legs, and squeezed her chest. She reportedly also hit the patient in the face with water from the cup or pitcher on the patient’s bedside stand. The entire ordeal was apparently related to the defendant trying to get the patient to take her pills.

The woman’s defense attorney said that the patient was disoriented and startled when the defendant woke her up, and that she has struggled with memory problems.

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