Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes

Psychiatric Report Says U.S. Needs to Prepare for Increase of Elderly Dementia

June 8, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to a recent Los Angeles Times report from the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, the United States needs to prepare itself for the growing number of elderly people with dementia and other mental illnesses—as the first group of baby boomers are turning 65 this year.

The problem, according to the report, is not due to an increase in mental illness with older people— but rather that 20% of this country’s population will be 65 and older by 2030. This will be a 12% increase from now.

The average life expectancy is also increasing with seniors, so elderly people who suffer from mental problems like dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease are living longer, with illnesses that can cause forms of behavior that are aggressive, with disorientation, delusions, nursing home wandering and other behavior, leading to harm or resident injury.

A recent Queen’s Medical Center study in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that the number of senior patients with mental illnesses receiving emergency treatment has spiked, with a 30% jump from 2008-2009. Many elderly patients were reportedly brought into the hospital by caregivers or family members who were unable to deal with the severe symptoms of the mental illnesses, and were exhausted or overwhelmed by the caregiving. The study found that emergency room treatment often occurs after many attempts of local placement for the senior.

Dementia Patient’s Wandering Leads to Death—Nursing Home Fined $20K for Negligence

June 6, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Talbot County, Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed a devastating nursing home wandering case, that was allegedly caused by negligence and resulted in the resident’s wrongful death.

Nursing home wandering frequently occurs with residents who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and suffer from confusion and disorientation. It is important for nursing homes to recognize residents who are at-risk for nursing home wandering and falls to prevent patient injury or wrongful death.

In another tragic nursing home wandering case, a home was recently fined over $20,000 after an elderly blind resident with dementia wandered from the Kernersville home and drowned in a puddle around 200 feet away from the facility.

The resident reportedly approached the staff in the home’s lobby three times late in the evening, each time in a disoriented state, wanting someone to take her across the creek to the next county. The staff reportedly took the resident back to her bed each time, where she remained until they did the 2 a.m. bed check.

According to the state investigation, the resident left the building sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. The alarm on the door did not turn off, as it had been reportedly deactivated so staff could go outside for smoking breaks. The staff allegedly neglected to turn the alarm back on.

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.

Daughter Sues For Nursing Home Negligence After Mother’s Fall-related Death

May 23, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In yet another nursing home fall and wrongful death lawsuit that our Frederick County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following, a Texas nursing home is being sued by the daughter of a deceased resident for negligence.

According to the lawsuit, Miriam Davis is suing Friendswood nursing home for negligence, after her mother died from multiple falls while she was a resident in the nursing home. Davis claims that the nursing home admitted her mother, Virginia Melghem, in November 2009, even though they were aware that she was at-risk for falling, and that they could not properly care for, supervise, or monitor her mother’s needs for safe care and nursing home treatment.

Davis claims that she was told her mother would receive proper care that would be administered to her in a manner that was appropriate to her physical and mental condition. As a resident however, Davis claims that her mother went on to sustain injuries and trauma that included multiple nursing home falls, that last of which led to a broken hip. After her last fall, Melghem died one week later.

According to the CDC, 20 – 30% of elderly people who fall, experience moderate to severe fall-related injuries such as fractured hips, lacerations, or traumas to the head—which can increase the risk of early death. The CDC also claims that the death rates from falls with elderly men and women have spiked over the past decade.

Husband Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit File After Wife Dies From Bedsores

May 18, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news that our Baltimore nursing home negligence attorneys have been following, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the husband of a 60-year-old Portsmouth Regional Hospital patient, who alleges that the hospital’s negligence and sub-standard care caused his wife to die from infected bedsores.

According to the lawsuit filed last month, Robert Vozzella claims that the hospital failed to detect and treat his wife’s pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, that developed on her backside while she recovered from surgery. The bedsores reportedly weren’t discovered for three days, and although Vozzella went through two months of pressure ulcer surgeries, the sores became infected due to reported fecal contamination—that led to her wrongful death.

As our Maryland nursing home attorneys have recently discussed, pressure ulcers affect nearly one million people every year, causing nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of serious bed sore development.

Pressure sores often develop in hospitals or nursing care facilities, where patients are immobile for long periods of time without moving. When patients are immobile, often recovering from surgery, or receiving medication, it puts pressure on certain parts of the body, causing the areas to lose circulation—leading the skin to breakdown and develop pressure ulcers.

With proper bed sore care and prevention, pressure ulcers are entirely preventable and even reversible, if discovered quickly enough and given the right treatment and necessary environment for comprehensive healing.

The Problem of Fall-related Injuries in Nursing Homes and Hospitals

May 9, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our Washington D.C. nursing home injury attorneys recently discussed the problem of fall-related injuries across the country, and the importance wellness and prevention education plays in keeping elders out of the hospital and nursing homes.

Much of the work of preventing falls with the elderly starts with always reporting any change in health conditions to doctors, like dizziness, and reporting previous falls. Other recommendations include daily exercise and hydration, and having regular eye exams, along with working with a doctor to minimize or revise medication management to work best for the individual. Other expert suggestions include having railings and bars installed in houses and showers, keeping clutter off the floor, avoiding any clothing that is loose or could cause a senior to trip, and for homes to be very well-lit. Other advice includes creating an emergency plan in case of a fall—like having seniors wear a medical device that would call for emergency attention.

In a recent Washington D.C. nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the CDC’s recommendations on how to prevent nursing home falls, which include assessing each resident after a fall to discuss the senior’s medical conditions and risk factors, by discussing potential risks with falling, and reviewing prescribed medications. The CDC also advises that if a senior is recovering from a fall, that the nursing home, hospital or rehab facilities should provide a safe environment to residents who are prone to falling—including raised toilet seats, safety handles and bars in rooms and bathrooms, handrails, adjustable bed heights that can be lowered, and padding to prevent injury. The CDC also recommends using alarm devices that are triggered when a patients attempts to get out of bed without assistance.

If someone you know in the Washington D.C. area has experienced nursing home or hospital falls that could be due to negligence, call our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free consultation, at 1-800-654-1949.

Nursing Home Fall Awareness and Prevention

May 6, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year, 1 in 3 elderly adults over the age of 65 suffer from falls, many of which happen in nursing homes—with falls being the leading cause of injury-related death in the age group.

A recent Los Angeles Times article discussed the prevalence of nursing home falls, and that as people get older and more frail, falls can have a life-altering and devastating impact on seniors—often talking a long time before the person can get back to their pre-fall health status, if ever.

To combat the problem of hospital and nursing home falls many programs across the country are being formed to improve fall awareness and prevention. In Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, senior balance classes are offered for their patients, as well as a yearly event for seniors that screen individuals to see who is at risk for falls.

In Lake County, California, a Falls Prevention Task Force has reportedly been implemented with hospitals, fire departments and senior centers, to distribute prevention and awareness literature and sponsor strength and balance classes to improve lower-body strength in seniors.

According to Lake County, when seniors suffer from broken hips due to a fall-related injury and are admitted to a hospital, over 50 percent of the seniors must spend time in a nursing facility or rehab center before going home. Twenty percent of these elderly patients will die within a year of the fall-related injuries.

Nursing Home Sued For Negligence after Patient Died from Pressure Sore Complication

May 4, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to recent news that our Baltimore nursing home attorneys have been following, a nursing home in West Virginia is being sued for negligence, after a patient living in the home for three years allegedly experienced neglect and wrongful death.

HCR Manorcare is reportedly being sued by Angela Black, claiming that family member Arcel Rose was neglected while living at the home from 2006 until his death in 2009. Black claims that the nursing home caused Rose’s deterioration of health and physical condition beyond what is caused by the normal process of aging—leading to dehydration, infections, pressure sores, malnutrition and death.

Black claims that while under the nursing home’s care, Rose experienced serious emotional and physical trauma, causing extreme and unnecessary pain, degradation, unnecessary hospitalizations, disfigurement, and loss of personal dignity.

As our attorneys have discussed in a related Maryland nursing home lawyer blog, pressure sores pose serious threat to nursing homes across the country, with around one million people affected every year, causing nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of the advanced bed sore development. As our lawyers have previously discussed, with proper nursing home care and prevention, pressure ulcers are entirely preventable and even reversible, if they are discovered quickly enough and given the immediate treatment and environment for proper healing.

Family Awarded Nearly $10M in Nursing Home Neglect and Wrongful Death Lawsuit

April 22, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our Hartford County, Maryland nursing home attorneys have been following a recent nursing home neglect and wrongful death lawsuit trial, where a Georgia jury awarded the family of a resident with over $9 million after finding the nursing home responsible for her neglect and mistreatment.

The lawsuit claimed that Charlotte Paulette Dean, a 51-year old resident of the County Crossing Assisted Living and Hutcheson Home Health Care, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was found to have various infected decubitus ulcers, or pressure sores, after being rushed to the hospital in 2006.

Dean reportedly died the following day in the hospital, and her family claims in the lawsuit that Dean’s personal injuries and wrongful death were caused by the nursing home’s negligence and mistreatment, and failure to properly care for Dean while she was a resident of the home. The trial reportedly lasted for one week, wherein the jury decided to award Dean’s family with $9,502,683 to cover pain, suffering, wrongful death, and funeral expenses.

Under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, all residents living in assisted living or nursing homes are entitled to receive quality care and attention with a supportive environment that improves and maintains the quality of their physical and mental health. If a Maryland assisted living or nursing home resident becomes injured or dies because of nursing home neglect, the home could be responsible for Maryland nursing home wrongful death or negligence.

Nursing Home Fall leads to Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Motion Picture & Television Fund

April 4, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news, that our nursing home injury attorneys based in Baltimore, Maryland have been following, the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s nursing home is being sued for negligence by the family of a nursing home resident who reportedly died after suffering from a nursing home fall.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the family claims that the nursing staff failed to properly care for and monitor Carrie Delay, an 89-year old patient at the home who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and was bound to a wheelchair. Delay reportedly fell in the stairwell between the first and second floors of the nursing home, fracturing her spine, along with sustaining other critical nursing home injures that her family allege caused her death the following week.

The nursing home is being accused of nursing home neglect, elderly abuse, and wrongful death, and the family’s suit is seeking unspecified punitive damages.

The Carrie Delay incident was reportedly the most serious to date at the facility, which has faced repeated complaints from family members that the quality of elder care has diminished since the fund announced that the nursing home and hospital would shut down. The home has also received two fines from the Department of Public Health for failure to prevent resident falls and serious injuries.