Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

After receiving complaints of abuse, the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration are investigating Clare Bridge home for seniors, a facility that provides care for residents suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Cape Coral Police are investigating as well.

Reportedly, family members of two male residents went to Cape Coral Police with the abuse allegations. According to one man, his 89 year-old father-in-law had facial bruising. Facility staff explained away the injury as a result of the man falling from a couch. The other man reported that his father said that someone would not let go of his thumb.

The investigations continue.

A New York nursing assistant was arrested on November 20 for reportedly sexually abusing an elderly nursing home resident under his care.

Thirty-year-old Paul Scott was charged with sexual abuse in the first degree of a physically helpless person in the alleged sexual assault of a seventy-seven year-old female resident, who suffers from dementia. The alleged incident happened at Hawthorn Health Multicare Center and was reported by another employee.

Scott pleaded not guilty to the charges, posted $10,000 bail, and was released. He is due back in court on December 3, 2010. If convicted of the abuse charge, Scott faces up to seven years in prison.

Sexual abuse of nursing home residents is a growing problem. Family members should never assume their loved ones are immune to this type of assault. Every single one of the elderly residents I have represented who have been sexually assaulted in a nursing home never thought it would happen to them. It is a vile and cowardly crime. If your loved one is in a nursing home, you can make it less likely that they will be the victim of sexual abuse by following these simple steps:

1. Visit regularly.

2. Visit at different times - don't let employees learn your schedule.

3. Know the characteristics of other residents. If you believe your family member is at risk of assault by another resident, request that one be kept away from the other.

4. Regularly check your loved one for bruises or soreness in the groin area. This is always uncomfortable, but it may prevent your loved one from being chronically abused.

5. Ask the nursing home administrator if any residents or employees have been previously disciplined or had legal trouble related to sexually inappropriate behavior.

6. Be vigilant. If you believe your loved one has been victimized, complain to the appropriate people and make sure a thorough investigation is completed.

If necessary, contact a nursing home abuse and neglect attorney and ask for advice. Missouri and Illinois nursing home attorney David Terry regularly represents family members whose loved ones have been neglected or abused in a nursing home. For a free consultation, call us at 1-888-317-2525.

Twenty year-old Christy Myranda Hardin-Simerly faces a charge of simple battery after apparently playing a prank on a nursing home resident.

Reportedly, the eighty-three year-old resident of Calhoun Health Care, a nursing home facility in Calhoun, Georgia, was in her wheelchair when Hardin-Simerly spun her around several times after she was instructed to stop. Hardin-Simerly also allegedly put ice down the resident's back.

According to Public Information Officer Lt. Tony Pyle, "After interviewing everyone involved, it appears this incident started out as a prank. However, once the victim voiced a complaint, the offender was obligated to stop her actions. She (Hardin-Simerly) continued until the physical contact became insulting and of a provoking nature to the victim."

Nursing home employees need to remember that many nursing home residents are not able to withstand jokes and pranks like their younger caregivers. "Stop" means "Stop!" and "No means No!" Keep that in mind and unfortunate instances like this will not happen.

Eighty-nine year old Wilbur Jackson went to Grinnell's Friendship Manor Care Center for rehabilitation after hip surgery. He was at the facility a mere 17 days before he sustained an injury that led to his untimely death.

In June 2009, Jackson was to be transported to a local hospital for testing. Midwest Ambulance Service of Iowa came to the facility and strapped Jackson to a gurney and began wheeling him to the facility's driveway, where the ambulance was parked. At that point, Jackson was fully alert and joking with facility staff.

As the gurney was leaving the facility, one of the gurney wheels dropped into a crack on the sidewalk, flipping the gurney. Jackson's head hit the pavement. He lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness. He died on July 5, 2009.

Jackson's family sued the company that owns and manages Friendship Manor and Midwest Ambulance. According to the deposition of Richard Achenbach, the facility Administrator at the time of Jackson's accident, he repaired the cracks in the sidewalk after the accident; in fact, he ordered them repaired after examining the cracks the morning following the accident. According to Achenbach, "When I seen the crack like that, I considered it could be a safety issue."

A deposition of owner Tim Boyle revealed that Boyle did indeed know of about the sidewalk cracks and that the rebar used to reinforce the concrete was exposed and protruding through the cement. According to Boyle, "Although the rebar was exposed...it did not stick up far enough to be hazardous."

Last week, a jury found the facility to be 90% at fault and Midwest Ambulance to be 10% at fault. Damages were assessed at $546,386, with a $491,747 judgment against the facility. Midwest Ambulance was ordered to pay $54,639. Additionally, after Jackson's death, Friendship Manor was fined $3,250 by the federal government.

Reportedly, Friendship Manor has a history of violations. In 2005, a facility employee was convicted of sexually abusing two residents. In 2008, the facility was fined $112,650 after Ruth Louden, a resident at the facility, had to have her legs amputated due to gangrene.

Cynthia Hill

The recent case of a thirty-seven year old Belleville, Illinois nursing home employee being charged with identity theft has spotlighted a growing national problem. On November 12, 2010, Cynthia Hill was charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft by the Madison County State's Attorney's Office. She is currently free on $50,000 bond.

The identity theft was uncovered after a 54 year old victim attempted to have power turned on by the local power company. That request was denied due to an outstanding balance of $1,303.51. The Collinsville Police Department began an investigation and found two other victims - all residents of a nursing home where Hill was employed. The other victims were 61 year old woman and a 76 year old woman. After a second delinquent account with a balance of $792.09 was uncovered, it was determined that the account had been opened by Hill.

Identity theft is fast becoming a big national problem. For those inclined to commit this crime, nursing home residents are easy targets. If you have an elderly parent or a loved one in a nursing home, there are several things you can do to help protect them against identity theft.

1. Be careful who has access to the social security number and birth date of your loved one.
2. Don't use the same passwords for nursing home issues as used for financial issues.
3. Regularly check credit reporting bureaus for new accounts that were not opened by your family member.
4. Report unknown bills to the police.
5. Regular visits with your loved one will also make it more difficult for those with evil motives to take advantage of trusting, vulnerable senior citizens.

Twenty-three year old Evan Fleming waited seven minutes before staff at DFW Nursing & Rehab began chest compressions after he stopped breathing. The delay cost Fleming his life.

Evan Fleming was severely injured in an August motor vehicle accident, when the car he was driving slammed into a metal pole. Fleming suffered broken bones and traumatic head injuries. After treatment at a local hospital, Fleming was moved to DFW Nursing & Rehab for rehabilitation. He had not yet awoken after his accident.

On the day of his death, a nurse aide found Fleming not breathing around 9:25 a.m. She summoned a nurse to the room. Records show that CPR was not commenced until 9:32 a.m.

During the seven minute delay, facility staff tried to frantically paged through Fleming's medical records to try to figure out whether or not Fleming was to be resuscitated. Reportedly, a licensed vocational nurse called down the halll to a nurse and told her that Fleming was to be revived. Paramedics arrived and began CPR at 9:41 a.m. Fleming was pronounced dead at 10:03 a.m. He had been at the nursing home facility just one week.

According to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, the official cause of death was trauma due to Fleming's auto accident. Fleming's father said he was told that the autopsy revealed that some brain swelling may have cut off impulses to breathe.

According to state officials, seven nurses at the facility did not have current CPR certification. Six resident rooms were labeled whether the resident should be provided with life-saving measures. Of those six rooms, four were labeled incorrectly. The facility's emergency police indicated that a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope be placed on the crash cart in the event of an emergency. The cart did not have the necessary cuff and stethoscope and did not have functioning batteries for a flashlight.

According to Fleming's family, "They (the facility) should have at least offered an apology of some sort. An e-mail, a phone call or a letter. It's like they swept it under the rug."

A Mount Olive, North Carolina assisted living facility, GlenCare of Mount Olive, has reportedly been cited for an outbreak of Hepatitis B at the facility that has killed five residents.

Reportedly, eight residents have contracted the deadly virus since October 2010 and five have died. State health officials suspect that the virus may have been spread due to the facility using a single lancing device on multiple residents while monitoring glucose levels. According to the Division of Health Service Regulation representative Jeff Horton, "The best standard of practice is if you're going to use one machine for multiple residents you have to disinfect that machine between each resident. Also, the pins that are used to lance the finger, to draw the blood, each resident should have their own pin."

The facility will be assessed two fines in this incident and have until November 19 to improve safety issues. If the facility is not in compliance by this date, then fines will be assessed daily.

A Kentucky nursing home was hit with a $42,750,000 verdict yesterday in a nursing home wrongful death and negligence lawsuit.

A Hopkins County Circuit Court jury found in favor of the plaintiff and against Harborside Healthcare, a Kentucky nursing home. The case involved Mr. James Offutt, a 92 year old resident of the facility. Mr. Offutt, who suffered from cancer, lived at the facility a mere 9 days prior to his death from dehydration, despite the presence of a feeding tube. According to attorneys prosecuting the case, Mr. Offutt also developed painful sores on his body.

The jury awarded one million dollars for negligence resulting in a death, one million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars for wrongful loss of consortium for Pearline Offutt, and forty million dollars in punitive damages.

The nursing home plans to appeal the verdict.

A Florida assisted living facility was fined $7,500 in a resident poisoning death after striking a deal with Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration.

Ninety-three year old Michael Gruen lived at Homewood Residence at Delray Beach and suffered from advanced Alzheimer's disease. Gruen was found standing over a dishwasher detergent container on December 28, 2009. He apparently got into the kitchen early in the morning that day while staff members were caring for another resident. Gruen could not tell staff members if he had drank the sodium hydroxide solution and staff called paramedics. Gruen died 18 hours later from severe burns to his esophagus.

Despite a state health care warning during a March 2008 inspection that certain areas of the dementia unit were improperly secured and residents could access chemical products and other potentially dangerous items, Holly Botsford, public relations manager for Brookdale Senior Living, says there was no way to anticipate what happened to Michael Gruen. According to Botsford, "the device with the dish detergent in it was in a cabinet under the sink and was attached to the dishwasher. The lines of the device ran directly to the dishwasher. It took much maneuvering and manipulation to get to the fluid, including disconnecting the hoses."

A Kentucky nursing home resident died last month from injuries suffered in a fall at the facility.

The resident was admitted to Mountain Manor nursing home facility on October 14, 2010. Facility staff assessed the resident on October 15 and found that the resident was a high risk for falls. Facility staff utilized side rails on the resident's bed for protection against falls.

On October 16, 2010, the resident was attempting to get out of bed without assistance by "exiting the bed around the side rails". Facility staff notified the resident's physician, who ordered a bed alarm be placed on the resident. Sadly, according to a citation from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Office of the Inspector General, "there was no evidence the bed alarm was implemented".

On October 18, the resident was found on the floor near the bed. The resident suffered broken bones around the eye and six broken ribs in the fall. According to a physician, the resident developed lung complications due to the broken ribs and died on October 26.

The facility was assessed a Type A citation by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Office of the Inspector General, which is the most severe citation available. A Type A citation is assessed in situations where a resident's life or safety was put at risk due to violations of state regulations.

Falls are a major source of injury for elderly nursing home residents. For some reason, many nursing homes still don't take them seriously enough. Physicians' orders are to be promptly obeyed - not delayed.

A search ensued when a 94-year-old California nursing home resident went missing on October 28, 2010.

The woman, a resident of Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas, California was located standing in the facility's walk-in freezer. After a hospitalization, the woman is back at the facility. The California Department of Social Services is investigating the incident.

This facility is the same facility in which a caregiver was convicted and sentenced for abusing and torturing Elmer Kittower, an elderly resident living at the facility.

An Iowa nursing home facility was recently fined by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals after it reportedly failed to protect its mentally disabled residents from repeated sexual abuse. The facility's owner was fined $6,000.

Abington on Grand, a nursing home facility located in Ames, Iowa, reportedly has had a history of health and safety violations. In fact, between 2005 and 2008, the facility was on the federal list of Special Focus Facilities. Special Focus Facilities are facilities that fail repeatedly to comply with state and federal nursing home guidelines and, as a result, are inspected twice a year to ensure compliance and improve performance. In the past, the facility was reportedly cited for hiring workers without conducting required background checks, residents eloped and were found wandering near the facility in traffic, and for having dead mice in the kitchen.

According to the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, residents at the facility were recently subjected to repeated acts of sexual abuse and threats. One of the alleged perpetrators was a man whom the court ordered committed to the facility late last year. Facility records show repeated documentation where the man threatened to kill people or sexually assaulted residents. Staff reportedly told inspectors that the man committed sexual acts with other residents daily. In fact, one facility employee told inspectors that she saw the man engaged in sexual relations with another resident but was told by a charge nurse to "keep an eye on the two".

A female resident of the facility with a severe mental impairment also reportedly engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with other residents. A facility employee reportedly saw her in a male resident's room engaged in sexual relations.

State inspectors reported that the facility documented instances of sexual abuse by marking a plus sign in the residents' files. According to a nurse employed by the facility owners, the company had no policy on dealing with "resident-on-resident behavior issues".

The facility is owned by American Healthcare Investment, a company with a history of resident care problems. The President and sole shareholder of the company is Brian Hoyle, who holds a stake in dozens of care facilities nationwide. According to Hoyle, "I'm just the owner. The company I have is just the owner of the real estate. We have nothing to do with the operation."

This detachment from reality is allowed because legislatures around the country have failed to prohibit the corporate spiderweb strategy employed by most nursing home companies. Owners create multiple corporate entities that effectively suck all money from the nursing home itself, leaving residents living at poorly funded facilities. Owners, meanwhile, are often cashing in and enjoy the same plausible deniability employed by Mr. Hoyle.

A nursing supervisor in Washington state admitted to stealing pain medication from her defenseless nursing home residents.

Jolene Larsen admitted to stealing morphine on multiple occasions from prescription vials and replacing the missing contents with water. The thefts occurred between November 2009 and May 2010 when she worked as a nursing supervisor at Merry Haven Care Center in Snohomish, Washington.

Larsen faces up to ten years in prison and a possible fine.

The real question here is whether the nursing home facility knew or should have known of Larsen's thefts. Did the nursing home do a background check before Ms. Larsen was hired? Did the nursing home provide adequate staffing or was Larsen alone much of her work day? Was there adequate supervision?

Families whose loved ones have been victimized by nursing home staff should ask those questions. It may be that the offending individual was simply a "bad egg" that was able to get through the system. It also may bae that the nursing home shares some of the blame.

Bowes Retirement Center, a retirement home located in Elgin, Illinois, was shut down after the State of Illinois reportedly received complaints of neglect and poor living conditions.

Owners of the facility marketed the facility as a retirement facility, but in reality, the facility offered services to its residents that led state officials to determine that it was actually an unlicensed nursing home facility. A retirement facility offers room and board, meals, and laundry, while a nursing home facility offers assistance in bathing and with taking medication. According to Linda Voirin, the Kane County victim advocate for seniors, reportedly staff members would sometimes give residents their medications from a box kept at the front desk - a job performed a nursing homes. Retirement centers are allowed to remind residents to take their medications but not administer medications.

The Illinois Attorney General's Office is seeking an injunction preventing the Angel and Bell Corp. and Benjamin and Angelina Guzman from operating another facility unless they obtain proper licensing.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health has posted more than three million documents about nursing homes online for public viewing. The records can be searched using city, county, zip code, or facility name and can be located here on the Oklahoma State Department of Health website.

The ability to view these documents is crucial when attempting to make a decision on what facility would best suit your loved one. Keep in mind that utilizing this site is only one of several steps you should take when considering nursing home placement for your loved one. You should view the nursing home compare information located on the Medicare.gov website. Visit the prospective nursing home several times at different times and talk to a variety of people - both residents and staff members - to get a better idea of life at the facility. Then, schedule a tour with the Administrator of the facility and ask any questions you might have.

Despite its Administrator's assertions that the situation at the facility isn't "actually all that bad", Hilltop Nursing Home, a nursing home facility located in Kentucky, was issued Type A citations, the most severe citation possible in Kentucky when dealing with abuse and neglect in nursing home facilities, for four dates in 2010.

On July 2, 2010, Hilltop Nursing Home was cited for failing to provide continuous supervision and monitoring for a resident who eloped from the nursing home facility on June 11. Facility staff were "supposed" to check on this resident approximately every two hours. Sadly, there was no "check" system in place and facility staff reported that "If we haven't seen them for a while, we look for them." This resident was located two days after the elopement, approximately 66 miles from the nursing home facility. The resident was at the police station, intoxicated.

On August 18, 2010, the facility was cited for an August 8, 2010 elopement. The resident had previously eloped on April 28. Around this time, another facility resident, suffering from COPD and mental retardation, was seen walking away from the facility in the excessive heat. According to the facility Administrator, the resident "was walking in the local town" and "does it every day of life".

An August 31, 2010 survey, found that the facility employed an individual listed in the Kentucky Nurse Aide Abuse Registry for two separate incidents.

On September 22, 2010, the facility was once again cited for failing to provide appropriate supervision for a resident. The resident at issue was known to ingest potentially harmful chemicals and had been reported as "eating cigarette butts" and "brushed teeth, mouth, and gums really hard with soap powder". This resident was rushed to a local hospital after ingesting shampoo to cure a lung infection.

According to Belinda Arthur, the new facility Administrator, she suspects that ex-employees were behind the most recent facility problems for "bringing these issues back up". "They were responsible for part of the incidents but because...they were fired, they decide that they want to call the state," according to Arthur.

Westwood Health Care Center, a St. Louis Park nursing home, has been cited for neglect after a dementia resident fell down a flight of stairs.

The incident happened in July 2010. The injured resident was found at the top of a stairwell the day before her accident. She was fitted with an electronic wristband that automatically locks exit doors as residents approach them. A mere eight hours later, the woman wheeled away from an activity in an area of the facility not equipped with the automatic locks and fell down seven concrete stairs. She reportedly was found lying at the bottom of the flight of stairs and most likely fractured two ribs in the fall.

While the nursing home facility disagreed with the state's findings, it did take corrective measures.

A 51 year-old janitor at a Michigan nursing home was arrested recently after a coworker found him in a 84 year-old female resident's room, exposing himself.

The janitor, who worked at MediLodge Nursing Home in Rochester Hills, Michigan, was found in a resident's room facing the resident with his pants down on Monday, October 18, 2010. The resident was fully clothed and sitting in her wheelchair. The affected resident was unable to vocalize the problem, however, the nurse's assistant who found the janitor in the woman's room said that she could tell by the resident's facial expression and eyes that something was wrong. "To see the look on her face tore me apart..depressed, upset. She wasn't able to vocalize it."

Despite the janitor's pleas not to report him, the nurse's assistant who witnessed the incident immediately reported the man to a supervisor. Police arrived shortly thereafter to remove to take him into custody.

According to investigators, there is a possibility of two other similar incidents involving the janitor. His victims in those alleged incidents? A 94 year-old resident and a 69 year-old resident.

While not involved in this particular case, the Terry Law Firm has handled numerous cases of sexual assault against nursing home residents. If you are concerned that your loved one has been the victim of a sexual assault in a nursing home, call us at 1-888-317-2525 for a free consultation.