Excessive Use of Force Reportedly Breaks Nursing Home Resident's Leg
A former resident of an Illinois nursing home has filed a lawsuit in St. Clair County, Illinois alleging that use of excessive force caused him bodily injury.
Henry Dinan filed a lawsuit on January 28, 2011 against Protestant Memorial Medical Center, Inc., which does business as Memorial Convalescent Center and Memorial Hospital, and Memorial Care Center. Reportedly, in February 2009, while Dinan was a resident of the facility, his left femur was broken when employees of the facility used excessive force during care.
Dinan is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
While we do not know the specifics of this case, broken bones are not uncommon at nursing homes. Sometimes, someone will fall and break a bone and it is no one's fault. Many times, however, falls can and should be prevented. What should always be prevented is abusive conduct that results in broken bones. Sadly, many nursing home employees are so overworked in understaffed nursing homes that they snap and physically assault a resident. In these cases, you will often find the root cause of the abuse is a tired, overworked, underpaid and undersupervised employee. Don't get me wrong, none of those excuse elder abuse, but prosecutors and/or civil attorneys should look not only at the abuser but the owners as well.
