Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes

Johnson & Johnson Accused of Pharmacy Kickbacks

January 21, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent nursing home injury blog, our Maryland-based attorneys discussed the epidemic of unnecessary drugging and chemical restraints going on in nursing homes, that can cause nursing home injury and threaten the lives of elderly residents.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil False Claims Act complaint against the drug giant Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly paying millions of dollars in kickback payments to a pharmacy company, in order to boost sales of antipsychotic prescription drugs for nursing home patients—drugs that can be used as chemical restraints with residents, that patients may or may not need.

The complaint alleges that from 1999—2004, pharmacists from Omnicare, the nation’s largest pharmacy, worked intensively to persuade physicians to prescribe Johnson & Johnson drugs in nursing homes, including the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, in exchange for kickback payments. The kickbacks were reportedly delivered to Omnicare in the form of rebates, grants, or educational funding.

Johnson & Johnson reportedly turned to Omnicare to increase the building of market share, knowing that physicians accepted advice on drugs from Omnicare pharmacists more than 80% of the time, and they were seen as an extension of the Johnson & Johnson workforce. The nursing home residents allegedly included people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Pressure Ulcers Claim Resident’s Life—Nursing Home Sued for Negligence

January 15, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent article discussing decubitus ulcers, a leading cause of nursing home injury and death in this country affecting nearly one million Americans every year, our Maryland-based attorneys from Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers have read about another tragic case, where a resident of a nursing home developed multiple non-healing pressure ulcers that allegedly lead to his death.

According to the lawsuit, Edwin Ley developed multiple pressure sores or decubitus ulcers while staying in Collinsville Rehabilitation and Health Care, that developed on his buttocks, feet, elbows and coccyx. Ley reportedly died from the complications of these sores and from severe malnourishment and neglect while being a patient at the center from December 4, 2007 through January 23, 2008.

When a nursing home resident rests for too long in one position without shifting weight, the resident’s blood supply to the skin is cut off, due to unrelieved pressure. The skin then begins to breaks down, and causes decubitus ulcers to form.

The suit was filed by Dorothy Ley, special administrator for Ley’s estate, and she states in the complaint that Ley’s condition deteriorated to such an extreme state that he was sent to the emergency room and diagnosed with dehydration and pressure ulcers. Edwin Ley died on June 10, 2008 from his condition, and according to the suit, in the months before his death, he suffered pain, disability, medical costs, and disfigurement.

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Accuses Nursing Home of Bedsore Negligence

December 30, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Maryland Nursing Home Negligence and Abuse Attorneys, we have been following the recent lawsuit filed against Caseyville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center—where a nursing home resident died after the staff at the center allegedly neglected to treat her multiple bedsores while she was a resident at the facility.

According to the lawsuit, Theresa Steiner was admitted to the nursing and rehabilitation center as a patient on December 12, 2008. She entered the home with pre-existing decubitus ulcers, or pressure sores— three on her buttocks that were stage II, and pressure sores that had developed on both heels after staying for a week at Anderson Hospital for abdominal bleeding.

One week later, Steiner’s buttock ulcers had developed into stage IV bedsores, there were multiple sores on her heels, and she had developed sepsis, one of the greatest dangers of an advanced pressure sore—when bacteria enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout your body. Sepsis is a potentially lethal condition that progresses quickly and can cause organ failure.

Steiner was taken to the hospital on December 19, 2008, and died on January 7, 2009 from sepsis and acute respiratory failure. Steiner’s son accuses the center of nursing home negligence—for failing to screen his mother bedsores properly before entry, for properly treating the bedsores, and for failing to alert Steiner’s doctor on the seriousness of her the bedsores to prevent further deterioration. According to the suit, the facility did not have a nurse on staff that specialized in wound care, and who was properly trained in treating pressure sores.

Sweep in Nursing Home Finds Felons and Sex Offenders with Outstanding Warrants

December 28, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent blog on nursing home injury, our Maryland-based attorneys discussed the problem many nursing homes are facing today, of creating a safe environment for residents who live in nursing home facilities with patients who are mentally ill or have violent criminal pasts.

After the Chicago Tribune’s investigative reports over the past few months, fueled by a series of nursing home abuse and assault cases, the publication has shed light on the high numbers of felons and sex offenders that reside in Illinois nursing homes, and how this is affecting the safety of nursing home residents. Last week, twenty federal marshals and the County Cook sheriff’s police, initiated by the Illinois Attorney General’s office, conducted a raid of two Chicago-based homes, looking for felons with outstanding arrest warrants.

After the sweep of the nursing homes, eighteen residents were discovered in the homes who are wanted on charges that vary from burglary and assault to disorderly conduct. The authorities arrested five people, including an unregistered sex offender from another state. According to the Attorney General’s office, this was the first step in an ongoing effort to identify residents in nursing homes who are wanted on arrest warrants.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the number of residents living in Illinois nursing homes who are felons has grown as the state continues to rely on the nursing home facilities to place younger psychiatric patients, many of whom have criminal records, which can endanger resident safety and cause nursing home injury or abuse to older residents.

Rating Nursing Homes—The Five-Star Quality Rating System

December 1, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous post from this week, our Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys reported on basic planning tips for families searching for the right nursing home environment that promotes proper care, protects the health and safety of the resident, and is free from nursing home neglect and abuse.

One recommendation was for families to search Nursing Home Compare, the database from the from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS), that ranks around 16,000 Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes in the country on a Five-Star Quality Rating.

The Five-Star Quality Rating was developed to help residents, families, and caregivers compare nursing facilities by giving them a snapshot of the current status of health inspections, staffing for each nursing home, and quality measures. This rating system developed as a direct result of the continued efforts made since the nursing home reform law enacted in 1987, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act (OBRA ’87).

The Nursing Home Compare Website uses this quality rating system to give each nursing home a score ranging from one to five stars. One star gives a much below average quality ranking, whereas a five star rating gives a much above average quality ranking.

Nursing Home Injury and Wrongful Death from Decubitus Ulcer Complications

November 6, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous post from this week, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers discussed the serious problem of Decubitus ulcers in nursing homes—pressure sores or bedsores that develop when immobile residents go for too long without being moved.

If a decubitus ulcer is not detected, the nursing home injury can become infected and progress to a more advanced stage, causing extensive damage to the deeper structures under the skin. These infections are often very difficult and painful for nursing home residents, as they take a long time to heal, and can cause complications, or even death.

One serious complication that comes from pressure sores is blood poisoning, or septicemia. Many residents also develop osteomyelitis, an inflammation of the bones that is caused by bacteria that enters the body through the open wound and attacks the bone. If not treated, osteomyelitis can spread into the bone marrow and the surrounding joints. The mortality rate for people with osteomyelitis is extremely high.

Treatment of serious decubitus ulcers may include drying out the wound, or surgical debridement, where a surgeon uses a scalpel to remove the dead tissue, bone and fluid from the area around the bedsore, and administers systemic antibiotics to the resident.

Surgical debridement of the bedsore can also be accompanied by ‘flap reconstruction’ to cover the open wound with healthy tissue to avoid infection. The surgery is done to make sure that the skin is free of dead or damaged tissue, to promote healing. This reconstruction is considered a last resort in cases involving advanced stage bedsores, as it has an extremely high complication rate, and recovery from the procedure is often slow and painful.

The Risk of Decubitus Ulcers—Resident Abuse and Negligence in Nursing Homes

November 4, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Decubitus ulcers, also known as bedsores or pressure sores, are a serious problem in nursing homes today—a leading cause of nursing home injury that affects nearly one million Americans every year. Decubitus ulcers develop when the blood supply to a resident’s skin is cut off, due to unrelieved pressure on the skin, from staying too long in one position without movement or shifting weight.

All stages of decubitus ulcers are preventable, as long as nursing home residents are provided with appropriate care. Elderly residents in nursing homes who are immobile or confined to wheelchairs are some of the most vulnerable to pressure ulcers, and the frequency of these sores can be seen as an indicator of the quality of care in many nursing home facilities. Many advanced decubitus ulcer cases are often the result of nursing home abuse and neglect, and can end in wrongful death.

According to data from the National Nursing Survey from 2004, one out of ten nursing home residents in this country have pressure sores. Of the study’s 1.5 million nursing home residents evaluated, 159,000, or 11%, had pressure ulcers. Around sixty thousand people die each year from complications of some of the more advanced stages of bedsores.

When residents are left lying or sitting for long periods of time in the same position, their skin begins to break down, and pressure sores can quickly develop. Pressure ulcers commonly develop over bony areas that are close to the skin and are less padded by muscle and fat—like heels, ankles, hips, tailbones, shoulders, elbows, backs, and the back of the head. One small irritation can quickly develop into a crater that is painful, difficult to heal, and can become a life-threatening nursing home injury.

Violence in Nursing Homes—Protecting Elderly Residents from Criminals and the Mentally Ill

October 30, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In yesterday’s post, our Maryland Nursing Home Injury Attorneys wrote about the difficulty of maintaining resident safety in nursing homes that take in mentally ill patients and violent criminals. Elderly nursing home residents who are often weak and unable to protect themselves from the violent actions of younger, mentally ill patients.

In the Chicago Tribune’s ongoing reporting on security and safety reform in nursing homes, today’s article recommends a serious overhaul of nursing home operations, to better protect elderly residents in nursing homes from the violence of mentally ill residents and convicted felons.

Nursing homes have become known as “dumping grounds” for young and middle aged individuals with mental illnesses, according to U.S. data and Associated Press interviews. The placement of mentally ill patients into nursing homes in this country has increased by 41% between the years of 2002 and 2008, as well as the incidents of nursing home crime and violence.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), released data earlier this year that nearly 125,000 individuals with mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar disorder lived in U.S. nursing homes last year—many of whom moved directly into homes from jail cells, shelters and psychiatric wards.

According to the Associated Press, many states are mixing the mentally ill with the elderly because the federal government will help pay for resident care under Medicaid regardless of their age—as long as the nursing home’s mentally ill residents stay under 50%.

Unnecessary Drugging in Nursing Homes Threatens Lives of Residents

October 28, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Maryland Nursing Home Injury Attorneys, we have been following the Chicago Tribune article published yesterday about an epidemic of unnecessary and dangerous drugging going on in nursing homes—causing nursing home injury and threatening the lives of elderly residents.

The report details that many vulnerable elderly residents in nursing homes are being given strong psychotropic drugs that they neither need or want—leaving them with dangerous side effects like tremors, severe lethargy, and a high possibility for falls or wrongful death.

This review of more than 40,000 federal and state inspection reports found that a wide variety of nursing homes ranging from high end facilities to run down centers, are in violation for improperly treating patients with psychotropic drugs. The violations included chemical restraint, unnecessary drug administering, dosages exceeding safety standards, and cases where dosages led to nursing home resident falls.

Since 2001, the Tribune identified 1,200 nursing home violations that involved psychotropic medications. These infractions reportedly affected 2,900 residents, although the actual statistics are likely to be far higher, as regulation inspections are only enforced once every 15 months.

Congress passed landmark laws protecting patients from unnecessary drugs in 1987—and since then, it is unlawful for facilities to give psychotropic drugs to patients without a doctor’s orders, patient’s consent and treatment justification.

Family Sues Nursing Home for Neglecting Resident’s Penile Cancer

October 27, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a tragic case that our Maryland-based Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers have been following, Everett Care & Rehabilitation Center, a Washington state nursing home, is being sued for abuse and negligence, for failing to care for 97-year old resident Charles Bradley—who suffered from an untreated penile infection that allegedly caused his death.

Bradley entered Everett Care & Rehabilitation when he was 93, in the winter of 2004. He lived in the nursing home until two weeks before his death, in March 2008, when Bradley was suddenly taken to the emergency room. Upon admittance to the hospital, doctors discovered a life threatening penile infection that caused his genitals to disintegrate, leaving nothing but a gaping wound. The court documents claim that Bradley’s wound went untreated for months in the nursing facility, and developed into severe penile cancer. Bradley died 18 days after entering hospital.

The lawsuit, filed this month by Bradley’s son in Snohomish County Superior Court, claims that the nursing home allowed the injury to continue to develop for months, without properly caring for Bradley, or reporting the wound to the doctors or family—violating the center’s promise to care and protect for elderly residents. Bradley’s family trusted that the center would provide him with the best care as promised, but they claim the nursing home neglected Bradley’s basic daily needs.

According to the suit, in November 2007, the staff at the nursing home noticed skin breakdown while changing Bradley’s diaper and reported the problem to a care manager, who failed to alert his doctor. Four months after this report, Bradley’s skin continued to break down in his genital region, and he started to lose large amounts of weight. Two weeks before he was taken to the hospital, the staff allegedly reported the skin breakdown one more time, but the managers again ignored the problem. By the time he reached the hospital on March 13, 2008, he was diagnosed with an infected wound, that doctors later diagnosed as severe penile cancer.

Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) began investigating Bradley’s case before his death, and issued a citation to the center for failure to follow the quality of care standards required by law. The DSHS claimed that there was no evidence that the home had ever reported Bradley’s condition to the family, the facility’s doctor, or their social services department—necessary for a life-saving intervention. The center was cited and forced to take corrective action.