New York Nursing Home Fined in Nun's Wrongful Death
Summit Park Nursing Care Center was fined more than $17,000 in the death of a 90 year-old Catholic nun. The nun, 90, was the third patient in less than a year to be injured at Summit Park Nursing Care Center due to an unsecured closet. On August 31, 2008, the nun was found in her room "conscious but bleeding profusely from her forehead, face, and left eye" after an unbolted closet had fallen on her head. The wardrobe was still on top of her. The nun, who suffered from dementia and heart disease, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and then transferred to Westchester Medical Center, where she died.
Tragically, state investigators uncovered two previous incidents where unsecured clothing closets had falled on patients at the Summit Park facility and went unreported to the state. One of those incidents had occurred just three weeks prior to the August 31, 2008 incident.
The facility faces additional state penalties due to the incident.
