Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 326 into law at 2:00 p.m. today. The new legislation is designed to improve the quality of life in nearly 800 nursing homes in Illinois.

Among other things, the new legislation will require nursing home owners to hire more staff members to care for residents, the number of nursing home inspectors will nearly double by 2013, and hospitals would have to initiate criminal background checks prior to transferring patients into nursing homes.

John and Mae Campbell

Eighty-eight year-old Mae Campbell had been a resident of Hazard Nursing Home in Kentucky since 2005. She and her family decided it was a good fit for her since they knew the facility and staff had taken good care of Mae's husband, John Campbell. They never dreamed that she would be subjected to sexual abuse while a resident of the facility.

Mae Campbell, who suffers from Alzheimer's, was sitting in the hallway of the facility last year in view of a nursing supervisor when a male resident walked up and ejaculated on her face. Three months later, she was sexually abused again by another male resident. A nurse who witnessed the incident was reportedly told by her supervisor not to tell anyone and Campbell had not been harmed. No one told anyone in the Campbell family what was happening to Mae.

The sexual abuses may have gone undetected if it hadn't been for a nurse's aide testifying in a wrongful death case. Debbie Salley testified in her deposition that she quit working at the nursing home after she witnessed the sexual abuse Mae Campbell endured while sitting in the hallway. She thought Campbell should have been better protected.

The State of Kentucky became involved and cited the facility for failing to monitor the man involved in the May 18, 2009 incident, even though he had previously exposed himself to both Campbell and two other female residents.

Another nurse, Sandy Noble, who also was being deposed in a wrongful death suit, testified that she found yet another male resident in Campbell's room and that he had blocked the door. The male resident was nude from the waist down and Campbell had semen on her. Reportedly, according to the deposition, a nursing supervisor told Sandy Noble "to go on and keep working and...not to be discussing it with anyone" and "there was no actual harm done to the patient". Once again, facility staff failed to monitor the man in the second incident even though he had been found in bed with another impaired resident in 2008.

Even after the sexual abuse incidents were uncovered through deposition, the nursing home failed to notify Mae Campbell's family about her alleged abuse. It took attorney Jeff Morgan, who was involved in the wrongful death case, to notify the Campbell family. According to Morgan's investigation, after one of the incident's Mae Campbell complained of a sore throat and soreness and bruising of her inner thighs. She had also complained of men trying to hurt her. Morgan said that the complaints were not properly investigated by the nursing home.

Mae Campbell has since been transferred to another nursing home. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services issued the facility a Type A citation, which indicates that the life or safety of a resident had been endangered. Reportedly, the nursing home staff failed to report the sexual abuse incidents, which is a violation of state law.

The Campbell family sued the nursing home in May 2010 and allowed her to be identified in the press in an effort to spare other nursing home residents from sexual abuse.

A July 25, 2010 fire at a Missouri retirement home claimed the lives of two residents and injured five others.

Firefighters responded to a call at the Danford Hall Apartments in St. Joseph, Missouri on Sunday evening. The fire began in the southeast section of the second floor and raced down the hallway of the facility, which is home to more than 40 residents in 38 apartments.

The five injured residents suffered from injuries ranging from smoke inhalation to minor burns. The deceased residents were identified as eighty-nine year old Ellis Stephens and his eighty-six year old wife, Iris Stephens.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

911 operators received a plea for help from a nursing home resident because "he wasn't able to breathe" and the facility was hot, according to a report from the Maryland Office of Health Care Quality. When state regulators arrived at the facility, they found air-conditioning pumps and compressors that had been inoperable since Summer 2009 and dirty and/or blowers and filters in resident rooms at Ravenwood Nursing & Rehabilitation.

Chilled water circulation pumps failed on July 2, 2010 and temperatures in the facility soared to 90 - 96 degrees by July 6, 2010. Inspectors found that the door to the facility's walk-in refrigerator had been propped open and refrigerator temperatures had reached 60 degrees; normal safe food storage temperature is 41 degrees. All 150 residents were immediately evacuated by the state and have not returned to the facility.

The ensuing investigation found that Ravenwood administrators knew about the air conditioning problems for over a year, yet failed to notify anyone of the existing problems and failed to make needed repairs. In fact, a cooling pump failed last year. Repair bids were obtained and a new pump ordered on November 4, 2009, but the pump was never installed. Sadly, only two of four compressors were working in September 2009 and a work order was not issued for repair until July 5, 2010. Additionally, one of two cooling-water circulator pumps had also failed and had not been replaced.

The facility was fined $52,500 by the state and ordered to correct the problems within ten days. If the facility is not substantially compliant by October 16, 2010, it runs the risk of being denied Medicare or Medicaid payments on new admissions.

Juanita Jackson

A Florida jury awarded $14 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages to a Florida family after their mother died after a rehabilitation stay at Integrated Health Services at Auburndale (IHS), a nursing home facility in Auburndale, Florida.

Juanita Jackson entered IHS in March 2003 for rehabilitation. When she was moved from the facility in May 2003, she was suffering from pressure sores and was malnourished and dehydrated. Sadly, she died on July 6, 2003.

Her family filed a lawsuit against Trans Healthcare and Trans Health Management in 2004 alleging that Jackson was injured after a fall, was overmedicated, malnourished, dehydrated, and suffered from pressure sores. The lawsuit alleged that while staff knew that Jackson was a fall risk, no preventative measures were put into place and she suffered her first fall within two weeks of her admission into the facility, sustaining a closed head injury and a fractured arm.

According to Blair Mendes, an attorney representing the family, the companies refused to participate in the lawsuit a few weeks ago after years of litigation. A default judgment was taken against them on July 7, 2010 and jurors were given the task of determining damages. On July 20, 2010, the jury awarded $14 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages.

Twenty-one residents at Mount Carmel Health and Rehabiltiation Center, a Kindred Health Care nursing home facility located in Wisconsin, have fallen ill from a mystery illness. The residents appear to be suffering from minor respiratory symptoms.

While nursing home officials have identified the mystery illness as a respiratory virus, Kentucky health officials are anxiously awaiting the results of laboratory testing that will give them a definite diagnosis of the illness and an idea into how the illness managed to spread.

With the East Coast suffering through triple-digit temperatures, residents at Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, Maryland faced a "potential harm" situation when the air conditioning system failed at the facility. According to reports, the air conditioning problem began on Friday, July 2, 2010, but, according to residents and employees, the air conditioning system had not been meeting the facility's needs for approximately two weeks.

Reportedly, the temperature reached 93 degrees in the building on Tuesday morning. After a resident called 911 seeking help that morning, the State of Maryland stepped in and ordered Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center to relocate its residents for safety reasons.

As of July 7, 2010, all of Ravenwood's residents but ten had been moved to different facilities until air conditioning system repairs are completed. Those repairs are expected to take at least another week. The remaining residents have been moved to an air-conditioned multi-purpose room where they are sleeping on cots, beds, and mattresses on the floor.

A California nursing home operator has been hit with a $671 million verdict in a class-action lawsuit filed in Humboldt County Superior Court.

A jury imposed maximum damages against Skilled Healthcare in a class-action lawsuit on Wednesday, July 7, 2010. The lawsuit alleged that the company violated a California statute that requires a minimum of 3.2 nursing hours per resident per day from 2003 to 2009. The alleged negligence affected approximately 32,000 residents at 22 facilities statewide.

In response to the lawsuit, the jury awarded $613 million for statutory damages and $58 million in restitution. Next week, the jury will decide whether to impose punitive damages on the company. Judge Bruce Watson will also rule whether the court will impose an injunction against the company to require it to maintain the required staffing levels.