Nursing Home Abuse

Hospice Nurse Charged for Elder Abuse and Narcotic Theft

August 24, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Feds Help Families Choose the Right Nursing Home With Improved Website

August 19, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Aides Found Guilty of Elder Abuse by Engaging in Prank with Dementia Residents

August 18, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Physical and Verbal Abuse, Fall-related Injuries Investigated in New York Nursing Homes

August 15, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Sued in Two Different Wrongful Death Lawsuits

July 25, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

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

July 7, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Worker Steals Resident’s Pain Patch for Pleasure

June 30, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

“Granny Cam” Footage Documents Nursing Home Abuse of Alzheimer Resident

June 28, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

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.