Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A New York jury handed down a massive $19 million verdict recently for damages in response to a nursing home neglect lawsuit filed by the family of the resident.

Seventy-six year old John Danzy was a resident of Cypress Hills nursing home for just nine months before his family removed him from their care. When he entered the facility, he weighed 237 pounds and was able to ambulate on his own. On the day he was moved, he weighed just 148 pounds and had more than 20 bedsores all over his body.

Mr. Danzy should have been moved every two hours to help prevent bedsores, but records revealed that the facility only moved Mr. Danzy every four hours, if he was moved at all. An FBI expert testified at trial that skin-check notes showing "G" (representing good) were marked over with a "B" (for broken), as the facility tried to cover up that it missed Mr. Danzy's sores.

The jury deliberated for two days following the four week trial before finding that Mr. Danzy was provided substandard care. $3.75 million was awarded for pain and suffering and $15 million was awarded for punitive damages.

Sadly, Mr. Danzy died from an infection caused by the bedsores six months after leaving Cypress Hills.

Mount Loretto Nursing Home, a nursing home facility located in Amsterdam, New York, was hit with a $77,610 fine after a January Department of Health Investigation found several deficiencies that could have placed residents in immediate jeopardy.

The fine was levied following an investigation that revealed the following:

- An employee who saw two other employees deliberately shaking and stuttering while caring for a resident suffering from Parkinson's Disease;
- Incontinent residents reported not being cared for promptly;
- Residents reported medications not being provided on time; and
- A resident reported that an employee threatened to strangle her.

Facility staff reported that inadequate staffing levels attributed to care delay due to large turnover from "burn-out" and employees calling in sick. Staff members also complained that "Chicago" controlled staffing levels, without being aware of what was needed. One staff member allegedly "stated that often there were only three [certified nursing assistants] on a unit and that she realized it was very difficult to provide quality care to the residents."

CNA Latoya Harding was arraigned recently on charges of fourth degree grand larceny, first degree offering a false instrument for filing, and second degree criminal possession of a forged instrument after she stole from a nursing home resident at Blossom South, the New York nursing home facility where she worked.

Harding reportedly stole a credit card from a 90 year old dementia resident and used it to pay household bills and make personal purchases from Wal-Mart. She also made several cash withdrawals. In all, her theft totaled approximately $2,434.57.

After theft allegations were made, Harding was fired from the nursing home facility. She reportedly filed for unemployment benefits and submitted an application for benefits using the forged signature of a Blossom South employee and claimed that she had been laid off from Blossom South. The application had clearly stated that only employers could complete the form.

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

We discussed Shane Spooner, a former nurse's aide at Clinton County Nursing Home in New York, in previous blogs.

For amusement, Spooner took a photograph of the genitals of a 49 year-old traumatic brain injury resident and sent it via text message to a female co-worker. The woman reported the incident to supervisors and Spooner was eventually terminated.

After a police investigation, Spooner was charged with second degree unlawful surveillance and first degree dissemination of an unlawful surveillance image. He plead guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of attempted first degree of an unlawful surveillance image. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail on October 23, 2009 for taking the photograph, placed on three years' probation, and fined $500.

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.

Violations of privacy. Failure to have infection control program in place. Failure to protect residents from resident-on-resident abuse. Failure to provide adequate supervision. Failure to label medications, failure to discard expired medications and keep medications locked up. All of these deficiencies were recently assessed to the Veterans' Home at Montrose in Montrose, New York.

In a thirty-seven page Health Department Report from August 2009, the Veterans' Home at Montrose was cited for a variety of deficiences that endangered its residents. Among the deficiencies:

- Failure to protect a resident from another resident with a documented history of aggression - A CNA wheeled the agitated resident out of a cafeteria into a common area after giving him his medication. The resident then wheeled over to another resident, grabbed his arm and pulled it back very hard, fracturing the resident's arm. A nurse interviewed about the incident said she was unable to provide one-on-one supervision because the unit was so busy.

- Seven residents were observed being treated with the door left open. Staff did not use proper hand-washing technique and did not disinfect the instruments used during the treatment for the appropriate amount of time.

- The facility failed to have a supervising physician and internal oversight.

The facility was required to pay $36,000 for its deficiencies.

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.

Patricia Henry holding photographs of Verda Henry, her mother

By all accounts, seventy-three year old Verda Henry was an active senior in 2005, working as a cashier at Eastchester Senior Center, family chef, baby-sitter for her great-grandchildren, and foster mother. When she fell and injured her arm in 2005, she went to Sutton Park Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation for therapy and assumed that she would be home in about a month. She died at the nursing home in 2007, after her requests to go home were repeatedly denied.

Patricia Henry, Verda Henry's daughter, and her children visited Verda every day, sometimes staying as many as eight hours. Patricia Henry said, "There would be a nurse and she would run between floors and they had no time. Nobody checks on her. Nobody feeds her. Every time we asked to take her home there was a reason we couldn't." Verda Henry soon became so weak she couldn't even move.

Patricia Henry found it accidentally - a huge bedsore on her mother's tail bone - when she was changing her mother's gown. Within days, the sore, already in an advanced stage, was infected. The last words Patricia Henry heard from her mother were screams as doctors scraped at the blackened skin. "You could put your whole hand down in her back. You could see the bones and spinal cord. It was like raw meat. Mommy screamed until she couldn't scream no more," Henry said.

Patricia Henry filed a lawsuit against Sutton Park Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation after her mother's 2007 death and filed a lawsuit last week against South Shore Medical Center, a facility across the street from the nursing home.

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

Carolyn Wheeler, a recreational leader at Somers Manor Nursing Home in Somers, New York, has been charged with endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person in the second degree, which is a felony, and sexual abuse in the second degree, a misdemeanor.

Wheeler allegedly returned to the facility on August 17, 2009, while off-duty and was found by nursing staff engaging in sexual contact with a 60 year-old male resident suffering from a severe mental defect.

Wheeler was arraigned and remanded to the Westchester County Jail in lieu of $3,000 bail.

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 Northwoods Care and Rehab in a previous blog after a facility employee was arrested for sexually abusing a helpless seventy-eight year-old resident at the facility. Now, the facility is in the crosshairs of New York's Department of Public Health.

Federal officials are refusing Medicare and Medicaid payments for new admissions to the facility after receiving reports that facility employees consistently ignored residents' calls and there was not enough staff to dispense medication. State inspectors revealed problems, some of which may have been considered "immediate jeopardy", to federal authorities.

An ombudsman from the Red Cross found problems at the facility during a visit on August 5, 2009. The ombudsman found a resident who desperately needed assistance going to the restroom. The resident turned on a call light to request help. A nurse came into his room, turned off the light, and said she would get him some assistance. Fifteen minutes later, the ombudsman again turned on the light, but it was turned off again.

On July 15, 2009, the facility was cited for failing to give medications, including insulin and anti-seizure drugs to thirteen residents in a 24 hour period.

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.

A nurse aide at the Waterview Hills Rehabilitation and Nursing Home in New York has pleaded guilty to tying a resident to her wheelchair with a bedsheet while he napped.

Pierre Obas, 72, pleaded guilty to violating public health law involving abuse, neglect, and mistreatment of a person in the May 16, 2008 incident. Obas has to surrender his nurse aide certificate and is forbidden to work as a nurse aide for one year.

The nursing home resident, who was 83 years-old and unable to walk or care for herself without assistance, requested assistance several times during the night of May 16, 2008. According to video surveillance, around 2:30 a.m., Obas tied her to her wheelchair, took her to a darkened common room, and napped while she sat, bound, in the wheelchair for approximately an hour.

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.

Former Nurse Aide Shane Spooner has been charged in connection with photographing a disabled nursing home resident in a sexually explicit manner.

On March 28, 2009, Spooner allegedly used his mobile phone to photograph the genitals of a 49 year old resident, suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Spooner transmitted the photograph in a text message to another facility employee, who was not working at the time. Spooner admitted to an investigator from the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit that he took and sent the photograph to amuse himself.

Spooner is charged with second degree unlawful surveillance and first degree dissemination of an unlawful surveillance image, both felonies. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

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

We discussed this matter in our previous blog.

In May 2009, John Ette, a former CNA at Adirondack Medical Center's Mercy nursing home in New York, was arrested for physically abusing an 88 year-old nursing home resident. Ette admitted to state investigators that he hit the bedridden resident in the face, grabbed her arm, and shoved her into her wheelchair. She suffered severe facial bruising and a broken collarbone. The woman's injuries were discovered the next morning by facility staff.

Ette pleaded guilty on July 22, 2009 to endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and was sentenced to time served. Ette spent approximately two months in jail following his arrest. He was also ordered to take an anger management class.

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 the tragic situation of the alleged rape of a mentally disabled nursing home resident at Shore Winds nursing home in a previous blog.

Kipper Stevens, a former licensed practical nurse at the facility, was arrested and arraigned on July 15, 2009 on charges of rape and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and his bail was set at $1,500.

Stevens alleges that he and the alleged victim, a mentally disabled woman in her 50s, were involved in a romantic relationship. "Our relationship started out as friends, but...I know that I should not have been involved romantically with a patient, but it just happened. We were two consenting adults having a relationship, and at no time was it forcible. I want people to know although this was improper, it was nothing malicious." According to authorities, the woman was incapable of making a decisions such as this. A co-worker of Stevens witnessed the alleged abuse and reported it to management.

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

We discussed the possible sexual assault of a disabled nursing home resident by a facility employee at Shore Winds nursing home in Rochester, New York in a previous blog.

When Shore Winds was contacted in December 2008 by News 10NBC, a man answering the call told them "nothing happened". Despite the nursing home's initial denials of the rape allegation in December 2008, Kipper Stevens, a nurse at the facility, was charged with one count of second degree rape and one count of endangering the welfare of a disabled person. He has since been fired from the nursing home.

A complaint lodged with the New York State Department of Health around Christmas 2008 alleged that a nursing home employee had sexual contact with a resident. The Department of Health investigated the complaint and determined that the complaint was serious enough to warrant a full investigation. According to Assistant District Attorney Matthew Schwartz, "He's accused of having sexual intercourse with the victim while in his position as a licensed nurse. The victim is one of the patients at the facility he was working at."

He plead not guilty to the charges in Court on July 15, 2009. He is scheduled to reappear in Court on July 21, 2009.

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

Glendale Home in Scotia, New York, a county nursing home facility, was recently assessed a federal fine of $20,800. The fine was the result of a state Health Department investigation that revealed lapses in care at the facility. In September 2008, multiple residents of the facility recounted to investigators the humiliation they felt begging to use the bathroom. Allegedly, residents were forced to wait to use restroom facilities due to insufficient staffing. At times, residents were forced to wait so long that they relieved themselves on the floor or in their beds. The residents reported that no one answered their call bells for assistance getting to the restroom. One resident had only lived at the facility for one month and required the assistance of two staff members and a mechanical lift to get out of bed. The resident and her daughter reported to state investigators that "staff would become angry with her for calling out when they were so busy and tell her she would have to wait". The resident also said that while waiting "she would be in pain from the urgency of needing to void". The resident told investigators that she had wet herself several times while waiting for the staff and that she was mortified and embarrassed that she wet her bed. When state investigators questioned staff about residents not being timely toileted, facility employees indicated that the facility was short-staffed on certain days, to the point that residents were not turned or timely bathed. The facility performed a study that helped determine when call light use was highest and re-deployed staff to handle the workload. Facility staff also attended "dignity" training, but no additional employees were hired to staff the facility. The facility is currently licensed to care for approximately 360 residents. In May 2009, Schenectady County voted to construct a new $50 million, 200 bed facility to replace the existing structure. Construction is expected to begin in early 2010. 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.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid cited Loretto Nursing Home in Oswego, New York for not complying with Medicare and Medicaid standards. The state health department found "concerns with the health and safety of the residents" and substandard quality of care in a survey performed at the facility recently. The facility said corrective action will begin immediately and funding for new admissions at the facility has been frozen until the problems are resolved. The facility is also paying a daily fine.

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 our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

Ninety-three year old Trent Lockridge was missing over eleven hours before he was actually reported missing from Dosberg Manor, an assisted living facility located on the Weinberg Campus in Getzville, New York. Mr. Lockridge moved into the facility on January 23, 2009. On February 17, 2009, Mr. Lockridge's roommate requested help in closing a window in their room. The employee noticed that the window was wide open, Mr. Lockridge's glasses were on the nightstand, and his walker was near the window, but she did not investigate as to his whereabouts nor did she tell anyone about it. When investigators first questioned her, she lied and told them she had seen Mr. Lockridge in his room around 9:40 p.m., but told a co-worker that this was not the case. Another employee performing a daily resident census went to Mr. Lockridge's room around 11:00 p.m. and found his bed empty but assumed that he had been hospitalized. This employee did not follow up or confirm it. A third employee stopped by Mr. Lockridge's room around midnight while doing rounds and noticed that he was not in his bed. Mr. Lockridge was reported missing around 6:45 a.m. on February 18 when a nurse said she couldn't find him. Interestingly, his medical records reported that staff had assisted him with taking his medications at 6:30 a.m. Mr. Lockridge was found on the ground outside the facility after either falling or jumping from the second story window. He suffered blunt-force injuries consistent with a fall and, according to police, died instantly or soon after his fall. His body had been outside at least 11 hours in freezing temperatures. The state Health Department investigation notes indicated that facility employees should have notified a supervisor when Lockridge's window was open and he appeared to be missing. Three employees have been disciplined, although neither the facility nor the Health Department will state what type of action had been taken. The facility has agreed to implement a new system for tracking residents at Dosberg Manor and train employees on the new system. 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 our website at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

Shortly after midnight on October 20, 2008, CNA John Ette reportedly hit a bedridden patient in the face at Adirondack Medical Center's Mercy nursing home (Mercy) in Tupper Lake, New York. He is also alleged to have grabbed her arm and pushed her down into her wheelchair. The elderly resident suffered a broken collarbone and facial bruising in the attack.

The resident's injuries were discovered the morning after the attack and were reported to facility administrators, who reported the abuse to the Department of Health. Mercy fired Ette the day after the incident. Ette admitted to attacking the resident to state investigators on November 12, 2008.

Ette turned himself in to authorities on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 and was charged with endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person in the second degree, a Class E felony; endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, a Class A felony; and willful violation of health laws, a Class A misdemeanor. His bail has been set at $1,000 cash or $2,000 bond. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to four years in prison.

The injured resident has recovered from her injuries and continues to live at the nursing home facility.

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.

Tracie Bowers was a certified nursing assistant at St. Joseph Nursing Home in Utica, New York until she blew the whistle on a co-worker for allegedly abusing a resident and lost her job.

Bowers and the other employee, also a certified nursing assistant, were working two shifts together one evening in March 2009 when Bowers first noticed unusual behavior. "She was kind of rude to all of the residents, really," she said. "She wasn't really, really bad; it was just a weird attitude." Bowers followed procedure and went to her supervising nurse, who excused the behavior by saying "she was probably tired". That answer did not satisfy Bowers.

Breaking company rules, Bowers brought her mobile phone with her on the second shift and proceeded to record her co-worker's allegedly abusive behavior. The second assistant had entered the room of a male resident with Alzheimer's or dementia. In the 30 second recording, the assistant can be clearly heard swearing and calling the patient derogatory names. The recording reveals a sound that Bowers identifies as the co-worker slapping the hand of the resident and commanding him to "be nice". While the resident was not being combative or difficult, he began repeating "be nice" over and over toward the end of the incident.

Bowers continued to be brushed off by her supervising nurse, so she took the recording to the facility charge nurse, who took her seriously and notified the state health department. While St. Joseph administrators originally praised Bowers for reporting the incident, she began having issues with other nurses and nurse assistants at the facility shortly thereafter, some of whom felt she should have been disciplined for having her personal phone at work that day. Bowers said, "It was just a whole stupid game of trying to get me kicked out of there, and then they (her supervisors) said they would probably have to terminate me." The facility refuses to comment on the reason for Bowers dismissal, citing "personnel issues", but Frank Trimboli, the facility administrator, said "the facility would never, ever terminate anyone for reporting abuse". Trimboli also refuses to comment on whether the co-worker was disciplined.

St. Joseph Nursing Home has not been without problems in the past. In a February 2008 inspection, inspectors found a pattern of administrative problems that could pose "immediate jeopardy" to the well being of the residents. The facility was fined $12,000 for violations in that inspection. In a recent state evaluation, the facility scored in the bottom 20% statewide for seven out of 19 categories and is rated as a one star facility, according to the new rating system instituted by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which is indicative of a well-below average facility.

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

Robert Gundersen, a certified nurse aide at Northwoods Rehabilitation Center in Troy, New York, has been charged with sexual abuse in the first degree, forcible touching, and sexual abuse in the third degree after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 78 year old defenseless nursing home resident between December 15, 2007 and January 7, 2008. During the evening shift at Northwoods Rehabilitation Center, Gunderson is accused of touching the breasts and vaginal areas of the physically helpless resident. He is already facing charges of sexual abuse in the third degree in another incident at a different nursing home facility. While Gundersen was employed at Eddy Ford Nursing Home in Cohoes, New York, he allegedly forcibly French-kissed a young female wheelchair-bound nursing home resident with multiple sclerosis. His court date is May 28, 2009. If convicted of the new charges, Gundersen faces up to seven years in prison. The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of sexual abuse in nursing homes. Please contact us at 1 (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com.

A state testing laboratory has confirmed that a nursing assistant at The Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation has the "swine" flu. As we previously discussed, the employee, after vacationing in Mexico, returned to work. Approximately four days after her return, she went home sick. She quarantined herself and is recovering. The facility took precautionary measures and treated all 358 nursing home residents and all 550 employees with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. At this point, it appears none of the residents have been infected.

There have also been two other confirmed "swine" flu cases in Orange County, New York, one of whom is a New York City firefighter. Both victims are recovering.