Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A Minnesota nursing home faces blame in the death of a resident after a medication error. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, a resident at Fair Oaks Lodge in Wadena, Minnesota died after she received the wrong medication.

The resident, who suffered from Alzheimer's, was taken to the hospital on June 1, 2009 after being administered the incorrect medication. The medication caused her blood pressure to drop and she contracted pneumonia. She was taken off life support three days later and died shortly thereafter.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, two other residents at the facility were also administered incorrect medications. They were sent to the emergency room for treatment.

Four staff members at the facility were blamed for the errors and the ensuing investigation "indicated a systems failure on the part of the facility". The facility was found responsible for neglect.

Redeemer Health and Rehab has been blamed for recent injuries a resident suffered that resulted in his death.

The facility, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was found negligent by state investigators because the resident, who suffered from a traumatic brain injury and dementia, was known to wedge his feet between his bed and the radiator and because the radiator cover had become loose. The resident suffered second and third degree burns on his legs and feet from a radiator heater that was uncovered and located directly below his bed. In fact, one of the resident's feet "appeared to be burned down to the bone" by the heater. The resident was rushed to a hospital, where he died approximately four weeks later. Facility employees reported that the resident had placed his feet in the same location on previous occasions and that the heater cover would regularly come off and have to be repaired by maintenance staff.

An inspection of the facility two weeks after the incident found ten beds within 20 inches of the radiators. Approximately six residents in those beds were considered fall and potential burn risks. The radiator surface registered temperatures ranging between 85 and 119 degrees.

Sadly, this is the second Minnesota nursing home cited for resident neglect involving radiators. In January 2010, a Golden Living Center - Meadow Lane resident was found sprawled over a radiator next to her bed. She suffered first and second degree burns on her left arm, hand, and leg and died approximately nine days later.

According to a Minnesota State Health Department investigation, the Foley Nursing Center, a nursing home located in Foley, Minnesota, was cited recently for failing to have "an adequate system in place whereby nurses notified the physician of the resident's deteriorating health status.

On March 3, 2009, a facility resident complained to a nurse that his chest was tight and his cough had "slight crackles". The nurse noted that the resident's oxygen saturation level had dropped to approximately 80%. The resident was administered oxygen and his saturation level climbed to 92%.

The following day, the resident attended a previously scheduled physician's appointment, where the physician detected shortness of breath. The man was taken to the hospital and admitted. The man died on March 8 from pneumonia.

The hospital physician doctor told state investigators that when the man's oxygen saturation level dropped to 80%, a nurse should have called a doctor. The state report found that one nurse failed to notify a physician of the "crackles" in the resident's lungs, a second nurse failed to act on that first nurse's concerns, and yet a third nurse didn't notify a doctor about the drop in oxygen saturation.

On October 7, 2009, a nursing assistant was caring for a female resident at St. Anthony Health Center when another resident's sensor alarm sounded. The employee immediately left to check on the other resident, leaving the female resident, who was a known fall risk, unattended and without her Care Plan safety precautions in place. The resident's Care Plan called for her bed to be lowered, a sensor alarm set, and a floor mat placed next to the bed. A facility nurse later found the woman on the floor of her room.

The woman's fall caused a hematoma on her forehead, according to a Department of Health report. Shortly thereafter, the woman became "very drowsy" and had weakness in her legs. She then became unresponsive and had difficulty breathing.

According to the report, with "significant physical status changes", the resident was admitted to hospice care on October 9, 2009 and she died on October 11, 2009.

The nursing assistant was suspended after the incident and was fired after the resident's death.

Minnesota authorities have issued a warrant and are actively searching for Quantel Morris after other facility employees watched as the CNA reportedly stuffed a sock into the mouth of a ninety-eight year old female resident at Sunnyside Care Center in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. When confronted, Morris told investigators that the woman would not quit yelling while he was changing her, so he placed the sock in her mouth. Reportedly, the woman was scared for days after the incident.

Reportedly, this is not the first time Morris' care has come into question. In November 2009, resident Nina Johnson was dying. Morris refused to put her oxygen back into her nose, was caught cursing in her room, and refused to reposition Ms. Johnson so that she could face her family.

Morris also faces an outstanding warrant in Chicago in connection with theft, drug possession, and child support cases.

According to a recent report from Minnesota's Office of Health Facility Complaints, a recent nursing home death has been tied to medication error.

According to the report, a patient was admitted to Faribault Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation following a hospital stay for spinal surgery on June 2, 2009. The resident was to receive rehabilitation therapy and had orders for a daily Lovenox injection, a medication prescribed to help prevent blood clots.

The resident received the injection as ordered for three days, but facility staff reportedly failed to give the injection over the weekend. The resident was given the injection for four more days before treatment was abruptly halted due to an apparent transcription error. According to the report, a nurse wrote that the Lovenox treatment was to cease on June 11, instead of July 11 as ordered.

Sadly, the resident suffered a massive stroke on June 17 and was hospitalized. The resident died on June 24, 2009. The facility was cited for neglect and the nurse who made the error was terminated.

Robbinsdale Rehab and Care Center, a nursing home facility located in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, has lost Medicare and Medicaid funding for new residents after inspectors found "critical treatment errors", some of which contributed to the deaths of two residents.

The facility has been in the spotlight of inspectors since July 2009, when a facility inspection survey found 29 deficiencies, which included failure to respond to signs of distress in two residents who later died. The facility was fined $3,000 and lost Medicare and Medicaid funding for new residents on October 7, 2009. The facility faces $24,300 in additional fines for six days that residents were in immediate jeopardy due to medication errors.

In February 2009, a female resident exhibited signs of a possible heart attack, which included low blood pressure and oxygen, clammy skin, and back pain. Staff members failed to notify her physician quickly, despite the resident exhibiting the four "red flags" of distress. She was found dead in her bed on February 2, 2009.

On July 2, 2009, a male resident was found "shaking" and unresponsive in his wheelchair. Staff members reported the incident to facility nurses, but no ambulance was called for five hours. The man died in route to the hospital.

In October 2009, the facility was cited for failing to discharge a patient who was being held against her wishes. Fifty-six year old Isabelle Jessich spent more than one year at the facility after being hospitalized for treatment for chronic alcoholism. Even after Jessich's doctor found that she was able to be discharged, her court-appointed guardian refused to allow her to leave.

Despite repeated warnings, facility administrators have been unable to correct problems at the facility. In fact, ten deficiencies noted in a July 2009 inspection still had not been addressed in October 2009 and another critical violation related to the mishandling of narcotic painkillers was discovered in October 2009. A resident was mistakenly given high doses of painkillers and was taken to the hospital on September 22, 2009. The resident was exhibiting obvious signs of distress, such as feeding an imaginary dog from his plate, seeing bugs crawl up walls, and wondering where he was. The ensuing investigation revealed that 120 Oxycodone tablets were missing from the allotment designated for the resident.

Robbinsdale Rehab is no stranger to deficiencies discovered during facility inspections. While the average deficiency rate is 10, the facility track record is as follows:

- 19 in 2007
- 25 in 2008
- 37 in 2009 to date.

If Robbinsdale Rehab and Care Center fails to rectify its deficiency violations by January 7, 2010, the federal funding ban will be extended to all residents, which could force the nursing home out of business.

A Columbia Heights nursing home facility was cited by the Minnesota Department of Health after an investigation into a July 31, 2009 resident death determined that neglect on the part of the facility attributed to the resident's death.

According to a state report just released, a male admitted to Crest View Lutheran Home on July 30, 2009 for rehab was found not breathing at 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2009. The man's body was warm, but he was not breathing and had no pulse. An LPN and her nurse supervisor were not aware of resuscitation orders for the resident, so no one tried to revive him. The resident was "full code" and resuscitation efforts should have begun immediately.

At 7:00 a.m., the man's wife and family had gathered at Crest View. The family heard sirens and suddenly the fire department rescue squad entered the man's room - two hours after he died. A day-shift supervisor called for help when she came in and discovered the situation.

The facility was cited for neglect by the state in failing to promptly try to revive and three rule violations were assessed against the facility in connection with the confusion, failure to take action, and lack of emergency training for workers.

Crest View has been one of four Minnesota nursing home facilities on the federal Special Focus Facilities list, which is a list of approximately 156 facilities nationally that have repeated or multiple serious rule violations. Crest View was placed on the list on March 2 and has been cited for 58 violations since January 2008 (the state average is nine per inspection). It will take two good inspection cycles for the facility to be removed from the list.

Ninety-one year old Gladys Gall and her husband were residents of Presbyterian Homes of Arden Hills in Minnesota in April 2008, when she suffered a mysterious injury that led to her death.

Gladys Gall suffered what is known as a "hangman's fracture", which according to a neurosurgeon, could only be caused by severe trauma. She died two weeks after her injury.

The Minnesota Office of Health Facility Complaints (OHFC) investigated and determined that Mrs. Gall was the victim of maltreatment. Yet, in May 2009, the OHFC revised its finding after the nursing home facility appealed the initial decision, stating that while the evidence did show severe trauma, there was no evidence that the trauma was the result of maltreatment.

The nursing home hired a nurse to investigate Mrs. Gall's death. The nurse found that Mrs. Gall had fallen on her own, injured her neck, and put herself back in bed. Her son, Kenneth Gall, rejects the nurse's conclusion saying, "She couldn't get up on her own, couldn't stand on her own. It took all that she had to sit up in bed." One nursing home employee even told the OHFC investigator that Mrs. Gall could not put herself back into bed if she had fallen and her husband could not have assisted her either. Mrs. Gall suffered from dementia and could not tell anyone what had happened.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on the website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

According to a November 9, 2009 report from the Minnesota Department of Health, on May 26, 2009, a resident of Homeward Bound Maple Grove, a nursing home facility located in Maple Grove, Minnesota, was forced to eat her dinner by a facility employee. The resident, who suffers from cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and swallowing problems, was not hungry at dinner. While she is able to feed herself, facility staff will assist her with her meals when she tires and she is able to communicate whether or not she wants to eat.

On the day of the incident, the male employee took the resident outside in a t-shirt, when it was cold. She did not want to eat, but the employee forced her to eat and used a larger spoon than what the resident would normally use. She also had problems breathing when she was being fed.

Reportedly, another employee witnessed the event and tried to stop the employee from force-feeding the resident. When she attempted to intervene, she was told that the resident was losing weight and he had to force her to eat if she did not want to. The resident was resisting the feeding and trying to push the man's arm away. The reporting employee had previously voiced concerns about how he cared for the residents that were consistently denied by the man, so she videotaped the incident on her cell phone.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

Grand Village nursing home in Grand Rapids, Michigan is the focus of a wrongful death lawsuit involving resident Rudella Reiners.

In 2006, Ms. Reiners was a known fall risk. Suffering from dementia and advanced osteoporosis and with a history of falling, the nursing home took many precautions for her safety, using a bed alarm, motion sensor, sound monitor, and a perimeter mattress. Staff kept a light on at night for her and even moved her to a room where she could be observed more easily. Somehow, she still managed to get up and walk. In fact, alarms were going off and no one heard when Ms. Reiners moved her trash can into the hall and fell, breaking her right hip.

Reportedly, the night of Ms. Reiners fall, the facility only had two nurse aides and one nurse to care for 48 residents in that unit. One of the aides had been sent to another part of the building to cover staff breaks and the other two employees were helping a resident in a different wing. No one was around to hear Ms. Reiners screams and the alarms sounding.

Steven Reiners, Rudella Reiners' son, went to the nursing home facility that night to talk to facility staff about what happened. It took more than ten minutes for him to find anyone.

Meanwhile, surgeons tried to repair the 89 year-old woman's hip, but she never recovered. She stopped responding and eating and died five days after her fall. The ensuing state investigation found that Grand Village was neglectful. An investigator determined that two alarms could not be heard at the nurse's station or other wings of the unit.

Steven Reiners has filed a lawsuit against the facility and wants nursing homes to be held accountable for their actions. "Someday I'll probably be in that same rest home," he said.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home wrongful death. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

A case of nursing home sexual abuse has been discovered at Texas Terrace Care Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

The Minnesota Health Department alleges that residents at the facility reported the abuse. Reportedly, the male employee entered a female resident's room and started "kissing her several times" on the cheek and mouth. She also alleges that the man tickled her diaper, touched her sexually, and assaulted her. She stated that she was surprised and thought "this can't be happening". Despite the woman's dementia, she clearly remembered the incident.

Two more residents alleged that the same employee had kissed them.

The facility fired the employee, who denied the allegations. The police have referred the case for possible criminal sexual assault charges.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home sexual abuse. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

Glenwood Village Care Center, a nursing home facility located in Glenwood, Minnesota, has terminated a teenage employee who allegedly abused at least two elderly residents. The aide has denied the allegations.

The aide, who was approximately 18, was hired January 30, 2009 and was fully trained in residents' rights, care of vulnerable adults, and how to prevent and report abuse. On June 22, 2009, another facility employee reported that the aide had been struck by a resident and the aide threatened to hit the resident back. The aide reportedly told the co-worker, "I wouldn't really hit her, but believe me, I want to. I just want to smash her." Another employee later told investigators that the aide told the resident, "If you hit me, you are going to go to jail and do you know what happens to people in jail? They get raped."

Later that evening, the same aide began lifting a resident's leg and continued to move it when the resident expressed pain with movement and told her, "Cry if you want to cry."

Reportedly, this same aide also made a resident cry by telling her she could soon see her dead husband.

Investigators concluded that the home had acted appropriately concerning the incidents and reported the aide to the nurse aide registry, which may bar her from future employment in a nursing home setting.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

Three nurse's aides at Edgewood Vista Virginia, an assisted living facility located in Virginia, Minnesota, were terminated after abuse evidence was uncovered.

State investigators made an unannounced visit to Edgewood in April 2009 and found evidence that four residents had been verbally, physically, or emotionally abused. In one instance, the three employees targeted a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease and pinched her on the side of her breast, slapped her buttocks, and bounced a rubber ball off her buttocks. According to the investigative report, the resident "got meaner and more depressed" and refused to come out of her room. Allegedly, two employees also hit the resident with plastic foam "noodles" and put their cold hands on her neck to startle her after they came inside from the cold.

In another instance of abuse, the employees slapped a male resident in the mouth and told another resident to "shut up". A female resident was told she was "crazy" and aggravated until she yelled to be left alone.

The employees are not named in the report. One employee was unable to be contacted either by telephone or subpoena. The second employee denied the allegations and denied seeing the incidents. This employee did admit to taking a photograph of one of the residents and posting it on the internet. The photograph was removed after she was told that it was not allowed. The third employee told investigators about some of the abuse but did not report it. She went through a thirty day evaluation for using bad judgment. The three employees have since been terminated from the facility's employ. The investigative findings will appear on their background checks and they will be disqualified from working similar jobs.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at (888) 317-2525 or visit us on our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

We discussed this tragic situation in a previous blog.

Judge Steven Schwab in Freeborn County heard arguments on July 13, 2009 concerning restricting information in the case involving teenagers at a Minnesota nursing home abusing the residents. Allegedly, four teenagers harmed fifteen fragile residents of Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Albert Lea in 2008 by abusing them psychologically, physically, and sexually. Brianna Broitzman and Ashton Larson, two aides at the facility, are charged with felonies in the abuse cases.

Prosecutors want case information restricted. Specifically, they are asking that the media be forbidden from publishing or broadcasting videos, auto recordings, and court transcripts. The judge is also considering ordering the medical not to release victim names.

The judge is expected to rule by 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14, 2009.

We discussed the tragic abuse at the Good Samaritan nursing home in Albert Lea, Minnesota in previous blogs. Aides at the facility targeted residents suffering from Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or similar disease because "they don't have their minds". To "make work fun or to get a good laugh", the accused aides abused residents by ranged from spitting in a resident's mouth, groping of genitals, hitting and/or touching residents in the breast or genital area, sitting on the lap of a female resident in a wheelchair with bare buttocks, sticking fingers in mouths or noses to keep residents from screaming, and taunting them.

Now, one of the aides, Brianna Broitzman, is denying abusing any of the residents at the nursing home facility, although other statements differ. Those statements, obtained from other nursing assistants in an interview with the Minnesota Department of Health, confirm that Broitzman was verbally and mentally abusive to residents. Broitzman is asking a judge to rule statements made to investigators are inadmissible.

Three Minnesota nursing home facilities and one assisted-living facility have been cited in the last seven months for inadequate supervision and medical care in four resident deaths, according to reports recently released by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Thorne Crest Retirement Center in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was cited for failing to monitor or reacting to the distress of a female resident who died in November 2008. The resident was in severe respiratory distress and anxiety for approximately twelve hours before she was taken to the hospital, where she died.

Martin Luther Nursing Home in Bloomington, Minnesota was cited for a January 2009 resident death. Investigation into the incident revealed that staff did not call police or paramedics for as long as 30 minutes while the resident was dying and did not perform CPR after she stopped breathing. The resident had been admitted for "a week or two" of rehab after an operation and had been expected to recover.

St. Mark's Lutheran Home in Austin, Minnesota was cited for a recordkeeping error that kept a resident from receiving prescribed medications. The resident was not given two medications prior to her death in February 2009. The facility also was cited for staffing shortage that prevented it from timely responding to resident calls.

An Oak Terrace resident was left unsupervised in January 2009 and was found dead in the snow outside the assisted-living facility, which is located in North Mankato, Minnesota. The coroner was unable to determine if the man died from exposure or from an injury.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us at 1 (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

An employee at Evergreen Terrace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota has been cited for neglect by the Minnesota Department of Health. On March 9, the employee was taking the resident to a bathroom without a transfer belt and with only one staff member, instead of two, violating the resident's care plan. The resident fell fractured an elbow and bruised a hip. The employee, who had been disciplined twice before, was suspended and then fired.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us at (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

The Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea is in the spotlight again - and not in a good way. The Minnesota Department of Health has determined that the facility and a staff member were responsible for the neglect of a resident in November 2008. The facility was neglectful due to "lack of timeliness of assessment and the delay in physician notification and medical intervention" after the resident was injured. The employee was accused of being neglectful, which led to the injury.

On November 21, 2008 around 4:00 p.m., an elderly resident, who was dependent upon staff assistance for activities of daily living, was to be moved using a Sabina lift. The resident had suffered a stroke, was unable to communicate verbally, and suffered from both long and short term memory problems. According to her Care Plan, the resident was to wear shoes or grip socks when being transferred via the lift. At the time of movement, the resident was only wearing stockings and her feet slid from the base of the lift, causing her to fall onto her right hip. After she fell, the employee lowered her down into a cross-legged position and called for assistance. A nurse and two assistants raised the resident into a standing position and seated her on her bed. Staff did not inform a family member who visited shortly after the fall that the resident had fallen.

The staff questioned the resident about pain, which she denied by shaking her head "no" and the nurse did not complete an incident report. Later in the evening, as nursing assistants turned the resident to change her, she reacted as if in pain by grimacing, whimpering, and touching her right leg. When asked if she had pain, she shook her head "no" and the nurse did not do a further evaluation. The resident began vomiting around 8:30 p.m., which continued through the night.

The next morning, the resident complained of pain with movement and was transported to the emergency room around 9:00 a.m. Her family was informed that she was being transported due to the vomiting and the resident's physician was not informed of the fall until after a fracture was diagnosed. She was admitted to the hospital for surgery and returned to the facility on December 1.

Two employees were terminated due to the incident and the facility is appealing its citation the matter.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us with any questions at 1 (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

We previously discussed Luther Haven Nursing Home and the horrific abuse that occurred there in our blog.
Recall that six residents suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of a single nurse's aide at Luther Haven Nursing Home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Five of the six residents have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia and a female victim with cancer died before the abuse was reported.

The abuse was believed to have gone on for approximately six months before a nursing assistant reported to a supervisor what she had seen in July 2008. Among the complaint allegations, the aide was accused of abusing a resident by lap dancing and sexually tormeting him, screaming and laughing at other residents, purposely upsetting another resident by throwing her prized dolls, whom she considered children, on the floor, and causing extreme physical pain to a resident by poking her finger into a cancerous hole.

The aide, who denied all allegations, was suspended on July 9, 2008 and fired two weeks later. According to information provided by The Grand Forks Herald, the aide allegedly appears to be Maria Josephine Bjerke, 25. Bjerke pleaded guilty on April 13, 2009 to three of six original abuse counts against her for disorderly conduct against vulnerable adults. She admitted wrongdoing against three residents of the facility from late 2006 to mid-2008.

The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect nationwide. Please feel free to contact our office at 1 (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com with any questions or concerns you might have.