Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A Connecticut nursing home resident was killed on Saturday, August 21, 2010, after he tumbled from his wheelchair.

Eighty-eight year old Percy Sumner, a resident of Bishops Corner Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility located in West Hartford, Connecticut, had been a resident of the facility since 2004. Suffering from dementia, Sumner was seen earlier in the morning near the front door of the facility and was redirected. According to Jeanne Moore, a spokeswoman for Genesis HealthCare, the nursing home's owner, "This patient was put on a 15-minute check right away and those observations are documented by our nursing staff. He was last observed in the hallway of his unit at 9:15 a.m. Unfortunately, just minutes later, the patient went out the front door, unwitnessed and unaccompanied by Bishops Corner staff."

When Sumner eloped from facility through the front door, the front door alarm reportedly sounded, as did a personal alarm Sumner wore for safety. It is unknown how much time elapsed between the time the alarms sounded and the time staff responded to those alarms. Sumner rolled 44 feet down a grassy embankment, through a vinyl picket fence, and over a three foot rock wall before falling from his wheelchair and hitting his head on the sidewalk. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, where he died.

This is not the first time the facility has been in the eye of inspection officials. Approximately four months ago, nursing home inspectors found that the facility failed ensure that the facility was free of dangers that cause accidents and failed to have a program in place to prevent inspection from spreading. According to the new rating system instituted by Medicare.gov, the facility was rated two out of five stars, or "much below average".

While the Terry Law Firm is not involved in this case, we have handled several cases involving elopement and wrongful death. Elopement as a result of lack of supervision by the nursing staff can often be linked directly to budgeting issues and insufficient staffing.

In Rockford, Illinois, nursing home competition is fierce. Rockford is considered "overbedded" due to an overabundance of nursing care and rehabilitation beds. The average occupancy rate in an Illinois nursing home is 80 - 82%, which means 14,000 vacancies per 100,000 beds. Nursing home officials are learning how to deal with the situation and adapt in a market full of senior care options.

Nursing homes are adapting the changing senior lifestyle choices by offering more care options. New business is being be attracted by transforming available nursing home wings into adult day care centers or adding short-term rehabilitation beds. In fact, two of the most popular business trends in Illinois today are short-term rehabilitation and late-stage Alzheimer's round-the-clock care.

Years ago, a senior fractured hip called for hospitalization for at least three months to heal and rehabilitate. Today, the same injury requires a two to three day hospitalization and then a stay at a short-term care facility for rehabilitation. According to Terry Sullivan, the regulatory director at the Health Care Council of Illinois, "Short-term rehab is 'a big part of nursing home business these days'" because a hospitalization is much more costly. Sullivan also said, "More facilities are specializing in one or the other. Many are licensed to do both, and a number of facilities went for a variance only to serve Alzheimer's residents...But there are higher standards that have to be met."

According to Nancy Nelson, AARP Illinois senior manager for advocacy, "advocates are trying to balance the protections for seniors in long-term care facilities with the rules and regulations those facilities face when trying to change their business models."

Marlene Delp

Muliple defenseless nursing home residents were left to suffer in pain after a nurse caring for them reportedly stole their pain medications.

Marlene Delp was arrested and charged in August 2010 on suspicion of stealing medications from almost twenty residents of The Terraces of Roseville, a California nursing home facility. The owner of The Terraces at Roseville suspected that Delp was stealing resident medications and alerted local police, who began an investigation.

Police searched the apartment in which Delp resided at The Terraces and found a variety of medication prescribed to 28 different people, 19 of whom were facility residents. Reportedly, she was replacing the residents' painkillers with over-the-counter medications.

She has been released from jail and a restraining order forbids her from working at the facility.

Alesha Neault faces two felony counts of unlawfully possessing a controlled drug and two misdemeanor counts of abusing a facility resident after she reportedly removed Fentanyl patches from two nursing home residents. Neault allegedly kept the patches for her own use.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a powerful painkiller that is 100 times more potent than morphine. Typically used to help control severe, persistent pain, such as postoperative pain or pain due to cancer, the Fentanyl pain patch delivers a controlled dose of the drug through the skin into the bloodstream over a period of three days.

Sadly, drug addicts are misusing the pain patch. Nursing homes often use the Fentanyl pain patch to help keep their chronically pain-ridden residents comfortable. As you read above, some nursing home employees are stealing Fentanyl patches from their defenseless residents and leaving them to suffer excruciating pain so they can use the patches themselves. Reportedly, drug abusers are able to withdraw the full dosage of the drug and take the entire dose at one time, either through injection, ingestion, or smoking.

Felicia Williams was arrested on August 25, 2010 on three third-degree felony counts of injury to the elderly or disabled by exploitation. As shocking as this is, this was not the first time she was suspected of abusing defenseless elderly residents.

Williams, a former CNA at Port Lavaca Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, had been investigated not two weeks earlier on suspicion of making "improper video recordings" of residents of the facility. According to the facility attorney, Paul Romano, "Port Lavaca Nursing and Rehabilitation Center deeply regrets that the rights of some of its residents were violated by a former employee's inappropriate use of a cell phone video recorder". Facility management discovered the video through an internal investigation and contacted local police.

Williams remains in jail on in lieu of a $130,000 bond.

A California man will spend three years behind bars for admittedly raping a defenseless 76 year-old resident on multiple occasions.

Fifty-four year old Felix Panem plead guilty to rape of an incoherent patient and elder abuse in June 2010. He was arrested in December 2009 after he was caught having sex with his victim by another employee of the El Dorado Care Center.

According to Officer David Vojtaskovic, "He told me that he came in (to her room) and cleaned her up. He changed her and had sexual intercourse with her." Panem admitted to having sex with the resident in May and November 2009. His victim described Panem as a friend but didn't recall seeing him that day and denied having sex with him.

Sexual abuse is a growing problem at nursing homes. Every day more elderly residents are subjected to sexual attacks by employees and other residents. For a nursing home abuse attorney who has had experience in handling cases of sexual assault, contact the Terry Law Firm at (888) 317-2525.

Elmer Huntsman was admitted to Elmwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on August 26, 2008. Huntsman was required to sleep with a continuous positive airway pressure system device (CPAP), which forced air into his lungs and helped him to breathe at night.

Early in the morning on October 5, 2008, Huntsman began suffering distress, severe oxygen desaturation, and shortness of breath. He called for help from facility staff members, but they refused. Instead, the day staff called for a non-emergent hospital transfer the next morning. By the time Huntsman got to the hospital around 9:15 a.m., he had fixed and dilated pupils and his body showed signs of lividity. Huntsman also had a urinary tract infection, weight loss, and Stage 2, 3, and 4 pressure sores on his buttocks and coccyx.

Huntsman's family filed an 18-count lawsuit in Madison County, Illinois against the facility, its owners, and Fox Med-Equip, the maker of the CPAP machine. The lawsuit alleges that Elmwood failed to properly assess Huntsman's condition, failed to adequately supervise him, and failed to recognize and treat his condition. Fox Med-Equip is accused of failing to have adequate procedures in place to ensure its equipment performed satisfactorily, failed to provide appropriate monitoring of its equipment to ensure it was used in accordance with doctor's orders, and failed to provide adequate documentation for the set up of the machinery and proper staff training.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, inconvenience, physical impairment, loss of capacity to enjoy life, loss of chance of survival and loss of remainder of life. Michael Huntsman, his son, also seeks a judgment of more than $800,000 plus punitive damages and attorney's fees.

In January 2009, Irene Hendrix suffered severe injuries at Cambridge Place Nursing Home in Lexington, Kentucky. No one seems to know what happened and Ms. Hendrix, who suffers from Alzheimer's, can't tell anyone.

Ms. Hendrix was found lying in a pool of blood with broken facial bones, bleeding in her brain, a swollen eye, a cut lip, and a 4 cm laceration on her forehead. She was hospitalized for three weeks and nearly died. Pretty severe injuries for "just a fall".

The case was reportedly investigated but closed without the nursing home being cited for Type A abuse, which is when a resident is placed in imminent danger or faces substantial abuse or neglect. Hendrix's family wonders why.

While they are suing the nursing home for Hendrix's injuries, they have also asked the Kentucky Attorney General's Office to reopen the investigation into her injuries. According to Hendrix's attorney, Scott Owens, this is a case of an abuse or neglect investigation at a Kentucky nursing home that "simply didn't go deep enough. There was enough evidence to raise a flag that there was a possibility that she could have been attacked...And we know that wasn't investigated at all."

All Kentucky nursing home abuse cases are investigated by the Attorney General's Office, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Office of Inspector General, and the Adult Protective Services branch of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. It appears that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in this instance.

According to the Attorney General's investigator, the cabinet's adult protection worker believed the injuries were accidental. The adult protection worker determined that Hendrix was the victim of caretaker neglect and had been exposed to an extreme safety risk.

Investigators from the state agencies were told by nursing home staff that Hendrix was missing on January 21, 2009, while in her merry walker. Unfortunately, each investigator reported varying information, including where Hendrix was found. The Attorney General's investigator called the room where Hendrix was found a "physical therapy room 'set up similar to a residential room'". The Office of the Inspector General's investigators called the room "an empty resident's room" and the adult protection worker called the room "an area with storage equipment". Information about how Hendrix fell also were conflicting: one report said she fell over a wheelchair and one stated that she was found in the merry walker with her face "to the floor". The Attorney General's investigator was told by nursing home staff members that they thought her walker had caught the door frame or raised threshold and it caused her to fall and land on her face with the merry walker on top of her.

According to Owens, his investigation has found that there have been resident-on-resident assaults at the facility and he and the family want investigators to re-examine the incident to determine if someone could have attacked Hendrix.

Barbara Lefforge

Barbara Lefforge was at St. Edna Subacute & Rehabilitation Center in Santa Ana, California a mere 5 1/2 hours when she was accidentally overdosed on morphine.

Lefforge went to St. Edna on September 17, 2007 after a tendon repair surgery. Her podiatrist prescribed 50 mg of morphine for pain instead of 50 mg of Demerol. According to her attorney, the medication error should have been noted by facility staff. Reportedly, the pharmacist warned that the prescribed dosage was too high. Nurses at the facility were unable to administer the full dose, so 30 mg was obtained from an office emergency kit and administered. Lefforge suffered an overdose, but no one monitored her or took her to the hospital. By the time Lefforge reached a hospital, she was barely breathing and had already suffered a brain injury.

A jury deliberated for two days before returning a unanimous verdict that St. Edna was 90% responsible for the damages fifty-seven year old Lefforge suffered and her physician, Wesley Kobayashi, was responsible for 10%. She was awarded $2 million for pain and suffering and $1.1 for medical costs. Punitive damages were also awarded and a hearing on those damages is set for August 24, 2010.

St. Edna Subacute & Rehabilitation Center is one of 25 California Covenant Care facilities.

Brianna Broitzman entered an Alford Plea on Monday, August 16, 2010, on three gross misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct by a caregiver toward a vulnerable adult in the criminal case of abusing defenseless residents of Albert Lea Good Samaritan nursing home in Albert Lea, Minnesota. An Alford Plea means that the defendant in a case maintains innocence but acknowledges that existing evidence could result in a "guilty" jury verdict.

Broitzman's sentencing is set for October 22, 2010. The gross misdemeanors each carry a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a $3,000 fine, or both. The case against Broitzman's accomplice in the abuse case, Ashton Larson, remains pending and the Freeborn County Attorney does not envision a similar plea in that case.

We had discussed the abuse these residents suffered in a previous blog.

An Iowa nursing home erroneously portrayed itself as an assisted living facility, rather than as a residential care facility, and was caught by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (DIA).

Emeritus at Silver Pines was slapped with $13,000 fines after an investigation by the DIA revealed that the facility was falsely portraying itself as an assisted living facility rather than as a residential care facility. According to the state, Silver Pines is only licensed to provide personal assistance and supervision, not high levels of medical care required at an assisted living facility. The facility also received 17 other violations for violations involving medical records, training, etc. It received 14 similar violations back in March 2010. The average number of health deficiency violations for an Iowa nursing home facility is 7.

The facility's owners were also ordered to hire a new administrator after the state determined that the current administrator was not qualified to hold that position.

On August 8, 2010, one hundred year old Dorothy Butler was taken to Middle Tennessee Medical Center Emergency Department suffering from severe hemorrhaging, four broken ribs, and "two pressure sores and bruising". The cause of her injuries was reportedly "unknown".

The Murfreesboro Police have launched an investigation into the cause of Ms. Butler's injuries, which will include an investigation into the nursing home facility in which she lived: Boulevard Terrace Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. According to Officer David Norton, Ms. Butler's "injuries appeared suspicious enough to launch an investigation". Norton also reported that a Tennessee Adult Protective Services case worker told him "the pressure sores would require some time to become this severe, indicating possible neglect or abuse".

According to facility Administrator Amanda Pullias, the nursing home is also looking into the cause of Ms. Butler's injuries but "we have not found any suspicious findings".

Butler had entered the facility in July 2010 to recover from a broken femur.

In 2008, the facility was forbidden new admissions after state inspectors found problems at the facility in nursing services and administration.

A Brockton, Massachusetts nursing home has been found liable for gruesome injuries suffered by one of its residents. John Donahue was a resident of Embassy House in 2005 when his left eye was gouged by a metal safety hook on a Hoyer lift that an employee was using to transfer him. Donahue's eye had to be removed as a result of the accident. He died of sepsis approximately 46 days after his injury.

Attorney David Hoey represents Mr. Donahue’s family. After years of legal wrangling, including a battle to invalidate an arbitration agreement Mr. Donahue signed when he was 91 years old and suffering from delusions, a jury in Plymouth Superior court in Brockton, Massachusetts found that negligence at the Kindred-owned facility was a substantial contributing factor to Mr. Donahue's injury and awarded his step-daughter $400,000 plus interest. Attorney Hoey stated, “By giving that kind of verdict, the jury is saying this type of conduct is not acceptable in our community, ‘Don’t do it,’ According to Christopher Lavoie, attorney for Kindred, "it was an unfortunate accident that happened during a transfer". Kindred no longer owns the facility.

By all accounts, plaintiff’s attorney David Hoey did a great job in representing the family of Mr. Donohue. You can learn more about Attorney Hoey and his law firm here

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has fined three Iowa nursing homes after finding residents in their care were being neglected. The facilities affected are: Golden Age Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, Griffin Nursing Center, and Sunnybrook of Adel.

Griffin Nursing Home

Griffing Nursing Home faces a $10,000 fine for reportedly failing to treat open wounds that a resident had developed. The resident was transported to a hospital only after a staff member found large amounts of bloody fluid draining from an ankle wound that exposed her bone. The female resident's leg had to be amputated due to infection.

Additionally, the facility was fined $500 for failing to provide adequate fluids to multiple residents, $2,000 for failure to prevent resident falls, and $2,000 for failing to address weight loss among some of its residents.

The facility was also cited for using a defective mechanical lift to move residents in and out of bed. Facility employees complained that the lift frequently malfunctioned and left residents in the air for as long as five minutes. An inspector found large cracks in the lift and a manufacturer's representative reportedly called the lift "unsafe". Facility owner Jim Griffin said that "the lift was in "perfect" condition and was still being used." Sadly, many owners focus on the cost of equipment rather than the benefit of the equipment.

Griffin Nursing Home has been given an overall rating by Medicare.gov of 2 stars, which is defined as a "Below Average" nursing home. While the average number of survey deficiencies in Iowa is 7, this facility had 14 deficiencies in 2007, 7 in 2008, and 9 deficiencies in the most recent reporting from June 2009.

Harold Lee Steele, Jr., a former Administrator at Poplar Grove Rest Home, pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail and bank fraud and submitting false statements after he reportedly cashed retirement checks for a nursing home resident who died in 1998. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 7, 2010 in the U. S. District Court in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has fined three Iowa nursing homes after finding residents in their care were being neglected. The facilities affected are: Golden Age Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, Griffin Nursing Center, and Sunnybrook of Adel.

Golden Age Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation

This facility faces approximately $20,000 in fines after the facility was found to have willfully disregarded open wounds on a defenseless resident's arm, leg, and toes. The wounds were only discovered after the resident was taken to the hospital for shortness of breath and hospital workers uncovered the wounds. According to a hospital nurse, she found the wounds when she smelled a foul odor and pulled down the resident's socks. She found a blackened, open wound the size of a half-dollar that was oozing.

Twenty caregivers at the facility denied knowing that the resident had these wounds, even though the resident was scheduled to have regular skin assessments and baths. Both the facility's Administrator and Director of Nursing expressed shock after seeing photographs of the resident's wounds. Sadly, this resident died 16 days after these wounds were discovered by the hospital staff.

Golden Age has been rated a one star facility overall by Medicare.gov, which is defined as "Much Below Average". In its most recent year of inspections, this facility had 10 deficiencies compared to an Iowa average of 7.

As of July 22, 2010, Bluegrass Care and Rehabilitation, a Lexington, Kentucky nursing home, has been placed on the federal government's Special Focus Facility list. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a Special Focus facility is a nursing home facility that has demonstrated a consistently poor quality of care based on inspection findings over the past three years. These facilities are subject to inspection twice as often as other nursing home facilities. to see the July 22, 2010 Special Focus Facility Initiative, go here.

Investigators found 22 deficiencies at the facility so far in 2010, which is more than three times the average number of deficiencies found in most Kentucky nursing home facilities. Additionally, the facility was slapped with a Type A citation, the worst citation that can be assessed, in both 2009 and 2010. The 2009 Type A citation was assessed after facility staff members reportedly attached inappropriate lyrics to photographs of residents and sent them via text message to other facility employees. The 2010 Type A citation was assessed after a resident eloped from the facility.

According to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, Hazard Nursing Home and its administrator, Sheila Noe, failed to report accusations that a resident was sexually abused by another resident as required by state law.

The facility spokesman, Eddie Woodruff, would not provide a comment on this specific charge but did state that Hazard Nursing Home has provided "consistently excellent care" to Kentucky residents since 1976. A brief review of Medicare.gov shows that it has received an overall one star rating by Medicare, making it a "much below average" facility. In its most recently reported survey information, Hazard Nursing Home received 11 deficiencies compared to a state average of 7.

The Administrator and the facility's registered agent are due in Court on September 13, 2010 to face the charges.

"Operation Guardian" was successful recently at Alden Park Strathmoor. "Operation Guardian"
is a compliance check system initiated by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to put nursing home owners and operators throughout the state on alert that state officials can visit any facility at any time without notification to ensure the safety of the adults that live at the facilities.

A recent inspection at Alden Park Strathmoore revealed four residents of the facility had outstanding criminal warrants. A fifty-one year old resident was arrested for a DUI in Cook County and a forty-four year old resident was arrested for failing to appear in court and for stolen property in Will County. Two other nursing home residents had warrants for contempt of court, failing to appear, and fraud, but they weren't taken into custody due to medical reasons.

According to Alden Park officials, they "'comply with state law and conducts criminal background checks of its residents through the Illinois State Police, in accordance with Illinois law and regulations. Unfortunately, criminal background checks do not provide nursing homes with arrest warrant information. As always, Alden is committed to providing quality care. Our residents, families and all those we serve are our top priority.'" According to Attorney General Madigan, "They appeared to have the information about people with criminal backgrounds but they had not shared that information as they are required by law with the department of public health."

The facility could face fines for breaking the law.

Pilgrim Haven, a northern California nursing home, has been fined $100,000 in the death of one of its residents. The eighty-five year old man sustained a severe head injury in a December 2009 fall and died the following day.

Reportedly, on December 7, 2009, the elderly man was found on the floor of his room where he had fallen. Although he denied hitting his head, the man was given a neurological exam that appeared normal. Later, when he turned pale and began vomiting, facility staff failed to assess him for head injuries and did not notify his physician for approximately two hours because there was no registered nurse on duty that evening.

The man was transferred to a local hospital, where he died the next morning. CT scan results found that the man suffered bleeding in the brain.

Frankly, the nursing home employees appear to have failed "head injury symptoms 101" in their response. Any time someone suffers a head injury, there are certain symptoms to watch for. If you notice any of these symptoms, call for help:

- Nausea that won't go away
- Vomiting
- Worsening headaches
- Change in behavior
- Weakness or numbness in legs or arms
- Increasing paleness
- Seizures

The nursing home employees at Pilgrim Haven should have recognized these obvious signs of head injury and contacted a physician or had the resident transferred to a local hospital for treatment.