Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog
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.
Our Maryland nursing home attorneys continue to stress the importance of a resident’s rights under the federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, where residents are entitled to live in an environment that provides quality care and attention that maintains and improves their highest mental, psychosocial, and physical well being and is free from the kind of nursing home neglect, abuse, and mistreatment that is plaguing nursing homes across the nation, leading to nursing home injury and wrongful death.
Everett Nursing Home Owner Settles Case for $3.5 Million, Herald Net, January 24, 2011
Nursing Home to Pay $3.5 to Wash. Man’s Family, The Associated Press, January 20, 2011
Nursing Home Cited, Sued After Elderly Man’s Genitals Disintegrate, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 16, 2009
Everett Home Accused of Neglecting Penile Cancer, Seattle Times, October 16, 2009
Lawsuit: Wash. Nursing Home Neglects Penis Ailment, Associated Press, October 16, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, (DSHS)