Nursing Home Negligence

Jury Awards $1M to Family in Nursing Home Fall and Wrongful Death Lawsuit

February 11, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Nursing and rehabilitation center falls continue to be a serious problem for residents who are recovering from surgery, weak, and have difficulty walking or caring for themselves. As our Washington D.C. nursing home negligence attorneys have stated in a blog, nursing home falls can be frequent, painful, debilitating, and can lead to death, with over 1,800 residents dying each year from falls in nursing homes, hospitals and rehabilitation centers, according to the CDC.

In recent news, the family of nursing and rehabilitation resident Robin Volpe has been awarded over $1 million, after the family brought a wrongful death case against the Heather Knoll Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, operated by Sprenger Health Care Systems.

According to the original lawsuit, Volpe entered the rehabilitation center to recover from back surgery of 2006. In July, Volpe reportedly fell while leaving her bed to go to the bathroom, breaking her wrist, hip, and striking her head—injuries that her family claim led to her death one week later. The jury stated that Volpe was left unattended for 2.5 hours before enduring the fall, which led to her leaving her bed. The jury claimed that the center should have a system in place to warn staff if the patient leaves the bed, to reduce nursing home falls and injury. The nursing home is reportedly appealing the case, claiming that a bedside button was available for her to ask for assistance and wait for help.

If a Maryland nursing home or rehabilitation resident becomes injured or dies because the home failed to protect the safety and health of the resident, the nursing or rehabilitation home could be held liable for negligence or wrongful death. Our Baltimore-based attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represent victims and their families that wish to recover personal injury compensation from nursing home negligence and harm. Call us today at 1-800-654-1949.

Nursing Home Sued for Wrongful Death After Resident Dies from Sepsis, Dehydration

February 7, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

“Granny Cam” Footage Captures Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect—Shuts Down Home

February 3, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Undisclosed Nursing Home Falls Lead To Lawsuit After Resident’s Death

February 1, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Husband Sues Over Wife’s Preventable Death in Nursing Home

January 31, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Assistants Sentenced to 2 Years For Taking Derogatory Photos Of Helpless Residents

January 27, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Nursing Home Rape of Elderly CA Resident

January 26, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Owner Pays Family $3.5M For Neglecting Resident’s Penile Cancer

January 25, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A 3.5 million nursing home negligence settlement has been reached in the lawsuit against Washington-based Everett Care & Rehabilitation, that our Prince George’s County nursing home injury lawyers discussed in a recent blog, where the family of 97-year-old nursing home resident Charles Bradley sued the home for abuse and negligence after the resident tragically suffered from penile cancer that allegedly led to his wrongful death.

According to the lawsuit, in 2007, a nurse told the home’s care manager that Bradley was experiencing skin breakdown on his penis that needed treatment. The care manager allegedly neglected to tell the doctor about Bradley, who had been a resident since 2004. Four months after the initial report, Bradley started to lose weight due to an infection of the wound, yet allegedly continued to receive no care and remained untreated.

By the time Bradley reached the emergency room in March 2008, the doctors reportedly discovered a gaping skin wound and a severe infection that had led to the total disintegration of his genitalia. The court documents claim that Bradley’s skin wound was neglected and went untreated for months in the nursing facility, developing into life threatening penile cancer. Bradley died just over two weeks after entering hospital.

Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) reportedly began investigating Bradley’s case before his death, and cited the center for failure to provide a federal standard of care for Bradley as required by law.

The owner of Everett nursing home reportedly agreed to pay Bradley’s family $3.5 million, after the family sued Everett Care & Rehabilitation in 2009 for nursing home abuse and neglect for failing to protect and care for the elderly and for failing to provide Bradley with his lawful right to great nursing home care as well as his daily basic nursing home needs—causing serious harm to Bradley that allegedly resulted in his wrongful death.

Three New York Nursing Homes Hit With Violations Due to Negligence

January 19, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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.

Nursing Home Fined 12K, Sued For Negligence after Medication Mix-up

January 12, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news that our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys have been following, a nursing home in New York was fined $12,000 after a resident was given the wrong medication over the course of 18 days, allegedly leading to her wrongful death.

According to the Associated Press, 94-year old Geraldine Burke, a resident of Cayuga County Nursing Home, was prescribed a medication for her thyroid last year. According to an investigation that was performed by the New York State Health Department, Burke was given a diuretic and blood pressure medication instead of her prescribed thyroid drug.

The investigation also reportedly discovered that the medication mistake was made by a technician at HealthDirect, the pharmacy filling Burke’s medication, by confusing methimazole, the thyroid medication Burke was prescribed, for metolazone, a diuretic and blood pressure medication, as the two medications have similar looking names.

The nursing home and pharmacy reportedly both neglected to catch the mistake, and Burke was given the diuretic 11 times over 18 days, which prompted the state Heath Department to fine the nursing home. Burke reportedly died due to heart problems that resulted from kidney failure, worsened by the diuretic. Burke also suffered from a number of other health conditions.