Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes

Daughter Sues Nursing Home for Negligence After Mother Dies from Pressure Sores

March 10, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Baltimore County nursing home injury attorneys, we have recently read about yet another nursing home negligence lawsuit filed in Illinois, where a health and rehabilitation center is being sued for failing to properly care for Betty Dressel, a resident suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, who reportedly developed pressure ulcers all over her body while residing at the home that her family claims led to her wrongful death.

Decubitus Ulcers, also known as pressure ulcers or bedsores often occur with elderly nursing home residents suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, who are resting in the same position for long periods of time without moving—causing areas on the body to lose circulation, which leads to skin breakdown, a problem that our lawyers recently stated in a Maryland nursing home injury blog, is entirely preventable.

Without proper nursing home staff attention, pressure sores often progress into the four stages of bedsore development, where small sores turn into deep painful craters as a result of skin breakdown, damaging joints and tendons and causing major infections which can lead to personal injury or even death.

The lawsuit claims that Betty Dressel was treated at Cedar Ridge Health Care and Rehab Center with substandard care, and as a result of her deteriorated mental condition, they restrained her to her bed, placing her at a high risk of physical deterioration. According to her daughter, this negligent treatment lead to the development of pressure sores that reportedly formed on Dressel’s back, legs, buttocks and feet that became infected, causing sepsis, a potentially fatal infection of the blood.

Types of Elder Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes

March 8, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Baltimore, Maryland nursing home injury attorneys we have recently discussed the topic of elder abuse in a nursing home abuse blog, and the prevalence of abuse in health care facilities and communities across the country, unlawfully causing harm, personal injury, and even death to older and vulnerable adults.

According to the NCEA and the NCCNHR, types of elder abuse include emotional, physical, verbal, sexual, and psychological abuse, as well as neglect, intimidation, abandonment, and exploitation.

• Physical abuse includes inflicting physical pain or injury on an elder, or the threat of inflicting pain. Physical abuse also includes hitting, pinching, slapping, shoving, and force-feeding, along with rough handling during nursing home care and treatment, when being moved, cared for, fed or given medicine. Physical abuse can also result from a nursing home staff member or an outside intruder or visitor.

• Emotional or psychological abuse inflicts mental pain, anguish, or distress on an elderly person or nursing home resident through verbal and non-verbal acts, which includes ridiculing or cursing a resident, threats of punishment or deprivation, rejection or isolation.

• Sexual abuse is non-consensual sexual contact where a resident is tricked, forced, threatened or coerced into performing acts of a sexual nature.

• Neglect is the failure to provide elderly adults with basic needs, such as proper health care and medical treatment, shelter, protection or food, which can result in conditions like dehydration, malnourishment, incontinence, pressure sores, incontinence, depression and immobilization.

Elder Abuse—a Rampant Problem in Nursing Homes

March 2, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Elder abuse, as our Baltimore nursing home abuse attorneys have reported in a related Maryland elder abuse blog, is a term used to refer to any treatment by nursing home staff, a health care provider, or any other person that is negligent, intentionally causing harm or a great risk of harm to an elderly adult who is vulnerable.

According to the NCEA, research indicates that more than one in ten elders experience abuse, with only one in five reported every year. The White House reports that every year approximately 700,000 to 3.5 million elderly Americans are abused, exploited and neglected. Studies show that elders are often abused by the very people that they trust the most, like spouses, family members, personal acquaintances or professionals in a position of trust.

According to the NCEA and the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR), types of elder abuse include physical, emotional, verbal, mental, psychological, and sexual abuse, as wall as exploitation, neglect, abandonment, or intimidation.

Elder abuse can happen anywhere, in nursing homes, healthcare facilities or in the community, and is a problem that remains to be under recognized, causing elders to experience consequences that can lead to personal injury or even wrongful death.

Assisted Living Center Faces Lawsuit After Resident Dies From Tripping on Phone Cord

February 23, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Another assisted living facility in Illinois has been sued for negligence, according to a Madison Record news story that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have been following, after a resident died from health complications and injuries sustained after tripping on a telephone cord in the home’s walkway.

According to the lawsuit, Cambridge House of O’Fallon and BMA management are both being sued by David L. Hubert, a relative of Anastasia J. Hubert, who reportedly sustained a spinal fracture as a result of the nursing home fall.

The assisted living home is being blamed for nursing home negligence, for leaving a telephone cord in the hallway near a nurse’s desk that was unprotected and exposed, allegedly tripping the resident as she walked by the nurse’s desk.

Hubert claims that Hubert’s injuries were a great source of pain and suffering and caused her to sustain a major loss of her normal life, along with major medical costs. Her family also claims that as a result of Hubert’s death, they have suffered the emotional loss of her company.

The CDC reports that over 1,800 residents die each year from falls in nursing homes. Personal injuries sustained from nursing home and hospital falls can be debilitating and expensive for adults to face. As the CDC reports, nursing homes should try to prevent falls by addressing the medical conditions of each resident, as well as identifying the potential risk factors, to ensure that assisted living facilities and hospitals are safe for residents who are at-risk for falls—providing environments that are free from personal injury or wrongful deaths often associated with falls.

Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit Accuses Rehabilitation Center of Decubitus Ulcers, Wrongful Death

February 16, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed the risk of pressure sore development in nursing homes, and the importance of proper nursing home care for pressure ulcer prevention and maintenance, to avoid resident injury or complications that can result in death.

According to recent news, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by Donald Simonton, who is suing Teays Vallen Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Charleston Area Medical Center for the death of his mother, Linda Bea Simonton. Simonton claims that the home engaged in nursing home negligence that reportedly led to the development and worsening of her bedsores, or decubitus ulcers, leading to her wrongful death.

Simonton was reportedly a resident of the home from December of 2008 to January of 2009, to receive physical and occupational therapy as well as skilled wound-care treatment for her legs. Her son claims that while she was at the home, her leg wounds became much worse and she developed additional pressure sores that would not have formed if the center had provided adequate nutrition. Simonton claims that his mother also suffered from inadequate hydration, which led to acute renal failure, among other health conditions leading to her untimely death.

As our Baltimore County nursing home lawyers discussed in a previous pressure sore prevention blog, once a pressure sore starts to form, the wound needs to be cared for immediately, as the sores can be healed with proper wound-care management, to prevent further skin breakdown or tissue loss. According to the Mayo Clinic, diet is also an essential part of pressure sore prevention and healing, as balanced meals supply the necessary nutrients needed to keep residents healthy.

Decubitus Ulcers and Nursing Home Negligence

February 14, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As our attorneys have discussed in a related Baltimore nursing home lawyer blog post, pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, are a rampant nursing home and assisted-living problem plaguing around one million people across the country every year, with nearly 60,000 deaths from complications of the advanced stages of pressure sores. Decubitus ulcers are sores that are entirely preventable, with proper nursing home care.

Pressure sores often develop at nursing home or assisted-living facilities when patients are elderly, or have limited mobility and rest for long periods of time without moving positions, which applies pressure to specific areas of the body and cuts off blood circulation, leading to skin deterioration or breakdown.

With proper nursing home staff attention, pressure sores can be prevented before they develop into the four stages of pressure sore development, often leading to soft tissue loss, deep painful craters, damage of joints and tendons and massive infections like sepsis or osteomyelitis, which can lead to nursing home injury or even death.

Other contributing pressure sore factors include dehydration, poor nutrition and lack of vitamins and minerals, as well as understaffed nurses, and health care staff without proper bed sore prevention and treatment training, which can lead to nursing home negligence—where elderly or immobile residents are left to sit for long periods of time without being moved, without having soiled undergarments changed, or without properly being cared for.

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.