Doris Rowe, 87, entered Evergreen Bozeman Health and Rehabilitation for a short rehabilitation stay. Instead, the stay cost Mrs. Rowe her life and her devastated family searches for answers.
On June 13, 2007, Mrs. Rowe was found unconscious and bleeding from her head. She died the next day from a cerebral hemorrhage. The fall was the fourth documented fall during her 35 day residency at the facility. She struck her head in three of those falls. The family alleges that the facility failed to prevent the falls, that the staff failed to respond to calls for restroom assistance, causing Mrs. Rowe to attempt her own toilet transfer, and that the staff was untrained and unavailable a great deal of the time. George Rowe, her husband who was also a resident for a portion of the time that Mrs. Rowe was at the facility, waited two days for a glass of water and saw the facility staff drop Mrs. Rowe twice. The lawsuit also alleges a large turnover in employees.
During a state inspection, the State of Montana found 65 pages of deficiencies, among which were restraining an ambulatory resident for no medical purpose, leaving fall-risk residents alone without restroom access, providing drugs over maximum dosage, and insufficient food to meet patient needs.
Another resident at the facility was found with head injuries consistent with a beating. As a result, Joshua Fowler, an Evergreen employee with a prior assault charge, was arrested for felony elder abuse. A lawsuit is currently pending against the facility for the incident and the family alleges that Evergreen failed to perform a background check on Mr. Fowler and failed to follow proper hiring procedures.
Interestingly, state regulations on Montana nursing homes were last updated in 1972. There have been attempts to update the state regulations, but those attempts have failed. The current laws were drafted before CNAs even existed, thus, only one aide is required for every 14 residents.
