Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Bridget Pierce, an employee of St. Clare Meadows nursing home in Baraboo, Wisconsin, faces charges of felony possession of narcotics after reportedly stealing the pain patch from a defenseless resident.

A manager at St. Clare Meadows called the police due to the possible theft and advised police that the facility had a problem with Fentanyl patches (a powerful painkiller) being removed from residents who were unable to speak or communicate. The patches are designed to release the painkiller gradually over a period of three days.

In one instance, a resident had a Fentanyl patch in place, but 45 minutes later the patch was gone. A security camera recorded only Pierce and another employee entering the room during that time. As the patch was applied to the resident's back, only another person could have removed it. When questioned by police, Pierce admitted that she removed the pain patch and flushed it down the toilet when she discovered that the manager was looking into the theft.

Pierce is to appear before the Court on February 18, 2010. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of three years, six months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Seventy-four year old Jesse Brown had been a resident of Alden Meadow Park Health Care Center in Clinton, Wisconsin since March 2006. On February 21, 2007, Mr. Brown complained of severe abdominal pain and was taken to Beloit Memorial Hospital and died there on February 22, 2007 from a severely impacted bowel.

According to court documents, Printess Pritchard, Mr. Brown's son, is suing the nursing home for failing to hire qualified staff and negligence. The lawsuit also alleges that the nursing home facility failed to adhere to the regulations of the federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987.

Amy Sevals, a former nursing home employee, faces narcotic possession and theft charges in connection with narcotic medication theft at two area nursing homes.

Prescription drug thefts were discovered at Knapp Haven and Heritage Manor nursing homes earlier this year and Administrators from both facilities contacted law enforcement. Knapp Haven reported that Sevals went into a medication cart and removed medications. A review of resident charts revealed that she had not administered any drugs at the time. Confronting her, Sevals admitted that she stole three Hydrocodone pills for personal use. She suffered back pain and allegedly had been prescribed Hydrocodone but abused it to the point of having to enter rehab for four days in October 2008. Knapp Haven also reported a large amount of missing Hydrocodone at the same time.

Heritage Manor reported an Oxycodone pill missing from drug supplies in May 2009. Sevals admitted to taking the pill for personal use. Allegedly, she had a tooth problem and had been prescribed narcotic pain medications and became addicted.

Sevals appears in court on July 29, 2009. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and up to $30,000 in fines.

Teresa Lynn Boughey, a former nursing assistant at Parker Oaks Communities, Inc. in Winnebago, Wisconsin, admitted to taking money from several nursing home residents and a fellow employee while employed there. She pled guilty on May 26, 2009 to misdemeanor theft and faces a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. There is no information on a sentencing date, but the pre-sentence investigation must be completed within thirty days.

47 year-old man suffocated and died 45 minutes after he requested that a nurse suction out his tracheotomy tube.

An 87 year-old female admitted for rehabilitation for a hip fracture was given a drug to which the nursing home knew she was allergic. She died of the resultant allergic reaction.

A 95 year-old resident fell from a sling on a mechanical lift that was too large for her. She hit her head and later died.

Since 2005, fifty-six Wisconsin nursing home residents have died and dozens of nursing homes have been cited for improper care. Hundreds of Wisconsin nursing home residents have been found with bruises, broken bones, and pressure sores - some so deep they go to the bone. Nursing home inspections often do not attribute the deaths to poor care. Sadly, the accusing finger points directly to inadequate training and supervision - things that can easily be fixed if the facility owner is willing to cut his or her profit just a small amount and pay for more staff members.

UGLY FACTS

- Dozens of facilities are cited repeatedly for serious violations, only to have new ones surface while in the process of correcting the previous problems. Approximately 25% of Wisconsin's nursing homes are owned by out of state corporations and 27 of the 54 homes were repeatedly cited for care violations are owned by out of state corporations.

- Deaths and injuries are occurring at higher rates at nursing home facilities with significant turnover rates. Turnover rates can be as high as 200% annually, but the average for any facility is 42%. Amazingly, one problem facility had a nursing assistant staff turnover rate of 257% and led Wisconsin in serious citations.

- Nursing assistants historically are poorly paid with some jobs starting at less than $9 per hour. These jobs involve heavy lifting, are stressful, and involve little opportunity for career advancement.

- Professional nurses caring for our loved ones also have a high turnover rate. The state average for turnover of full-time registered nurses is approximately 32%. In facilities with serious violations, the average turnover rate was 57%, with some facilities having a turnover rate as high as 300%.

- Families often are not told of citations issued after deaths of loved ones. Four families were advised by the Journal Senteniel newspaper of serious citations issued months or years after the deaths.

WHO ARE THE FACILITY OWNERS?

Kindred Healthcare is the owner of 228 nursing facilities nationwide, eleven of which are in Wisconsin. In fact, Kindred is the owner of Mount Carmel Medical and Rehabilitation Center in Burlington, Wisconsin. Mount Carmel has had multiple problems with pressure sores at its facility and has been cited in the past.

For example, Bill Kurth died from pressure ulcers, infection, and malnutrition while a resident of Mount Carmel. His relatives visited daily but were completely unaware that he had ten infected pressures sores distributed over his body. They only discovered the pressure sore situation when he was rushed to the hospital.

Lois Glass also suffered from pressure sores while a resident at Mount Carmel. Her family did know of her bed sores, but were told they were being treated. She later died. Her family did not find out about the poor care she received until more than two years after her death when the state attorney general's office contacted them to advise that the nurse involved was being charged with neglect and Ms. Glass' case was being used as evidence.

Once upon a time, Mount Carmel had a wound care team, but it was disbanded several months before Mr. Kurth developed his pressure sores. That left only one nurse to care for all of the facility's patients and their sores. She was overwhelmed. Reportedly, she falsified records to make it appear that she was treating the residents. She has since been convicted of criminal neglect.

Kindred alleges that "resident care and safety is our number one concern" It purports to take seriously any issues brought to our attention by the state or family members." One may wonder if resident care and safety is the number one concern, why it disbanded the wound care team?

Another corporation in the public eye is Extendicare. Extendicare is one of the largest nursing home chains in the United States with approximately 174 facilities nationwide. It has 26 facilities in Wisconsin, twenty of which have been cited in the past three years for at least one serious violation. In 2005, it paid a whopping $2.3 million to the State of Wisconsin in a civil settlement over serious nursing home violations.

Extendicare's Willows Nursing and Rehabilitation in Sun Prairie was cited for poor care after two resident deaths and paid an incredible $198,045 to the State for the deaths. The facility was also on the federal list of worst homes in the United States. It has since graduated from the program and come off the list. Dorothy Herlitz was a casualty of poor care at the Willows. She went to the Willows for short-term rehabilitation for a fractured ankle and was wearing a soft cast. One week after her admission, she was rushed to the hospital with an infected pressure sore on her fractured ankle. The facility had called a doctor four days earlier when they saw a dark area under the cast, but they never followed up when the doctor did not call back. Tragically, when the soft cast was removed from Ms. Herlitz's ankle, one physician was brought to tears at what was seen. The wound was "dark purple and fluid filled" and Ms. Herlitz's leg exploded with pus, slime, blood, and stench. She died twelve days later.

Sava Senior Care is another repeat offender of poor care. Sava operates 185 homes nationally and 4 in Wisconsin. Interestingly, two of its four homes have been cited with serious violations at least three times since 2005. Virginia Highlands Health and Rehabilitation is one of Sava's homes. Last year, the facility had staff turnover higher than 100% in every nursing and nurse assistant position and led the state in serious violations. It has been cited five times for harming residents or placing them in jeopardy in 2007. There have been six different administrators of the facility since January 2005. The facility has been cited multiple times for failing to have adequate infection control.

After the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated allegations of sexual abuse, the State Department of Justice charged Kurt Johnson with three counts of second-degree sexual assault. Johnson, who worked as a CNA at Golden Living Center, Wisconsin Dells, was responsible for the care of patients in the Dementia/Alzheimer's unit of the facility. Between September and December 2007, Johnson was caught by three different co-workers fondling the breasts of female residents. Two of the patients were residents of the Dementia/Alzheimer's unit. One of the residents was incapable of communication or reaction, but the second resident was seen physically resisting the assault.

If convicted, Johnson could serve 120 years and pay a $300,000 fine.

The Terry Law Firm has represented many victims of sexual assault and is well-experienced in prosecuting cases this area.

Leah Johnson is the center of a controversy in this tragic case and she is not even aware of it. Mrs. Johnson, 53, became a resident of Divine Savior Nursing Home in Portage, Wisconsin after suffering a debilitating stroke in 2005. She entered the chronic care facility unable to talk or move on her own.

In June 2005, a facility employee reported that David Johnson, Leah Johnson's husband and a former minister, had touched his wife in a way that may have been sexually inappropriate. Johnson had closed-door visits with his wife in the past with the facility's knowledge. The facility policy and state administrative code provide residents and their spouses a right to private visits, but the Administrator of Divine Savior Nursing Home obtained a waiver of the state rule from the Department of Health and Family Services - without advising David Johnson - and went to police. Police obtained a search warrant and placed a hidden video camera in Mrs. Johnson's room. The camera recorded three weeks of surveillance, in which David Johnson was seen having marital relations with his wife. Because Mrs. Johnson is unable to talk or move on her own, she was considered "comatose" and unable to consent to marital relations.

In May 2007, Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart ruled that the search warrant was improperly executed and that Mr. Johnson had the right to privacy in his wife's room. The judge further ruled that the videotapes could not be used as evidence in a criminal trial against Johnson. Prosecutors appealed this ruling to the Wisconsin's Fourth District Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals upheld Judge Taggart's initial ruling. At this point, prosecutors are deciding whether or not to file another appeal and bring the issue before the State Supreme Court or dismiss the charges.

It is unclear whether this case would affect the evidentiary status of a court video placed by a family member suspecting a nursing home of abuse.

Currently, David Johnson faces eight felonies - four counts of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious person and four counts of third-degree sexual assault.

Kurt Johnson, 49, faces three counts of second-degree sexual assault for fondling three patients. Johnson worked at Golden Living Center - Wisconsin Dells as a nursing home worker. In 2007, three co-workers reported seeing him fondle three patients' breasts between September and December 2007. Two of the assaulted patients were patients in the Alzheimer's unit.

Johnson faces up to 120 years in prison and a $300,000 fine.

Eric Larrabee, a former nursing home worker at Skaalen Sunset Home in Stoughton, Wisconsin, was charged with patient abuse on November 10, 2008. Larrabee is accused of slapping an 85 year old hospice patient only ten days before she died on February 20, 2008 at Skaalen Sunset Home. Allegedly, another worker at the facility heard Larrabee yell at the woman to be quiet before seeing him slap her with his open hand. Larrabee admitted that he struck the resident due to frustration but maintains that he only tapped her face.

Larrabee is due in court on November 24, 2008.

To say that Otto Kangas did not receive the care he should have while a patient at St. Francis in the Park Health and Rehabilitation in Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin is an understatement. In March 2008, after two weeks of an untreated infection, he was hospitalized for a pressure sore on his heel, gangrene, and cellulitis. In violation of federal regulations, no one at the nursing home bothered to tell his family of this change. His family only learned of his plight when the hospital called looking for permission to operate on Mr. Kangas' foot, which had a wound "open to the bone" with yellow drainage. Surgery was performed to remove dead tissue from the wound. Unfortunately, Mr. Kangas died on April 19 at St. Francis while running a temperature of 102 degrees.

St. Francis in the Park Health and Rehabilitation, which is owned by HP Superior, Inc., is facing 20 citations for federal and state nursing home regulation violations. At least three of these have the potential for the most serious designation of "immediate jeopardy". The monetary penalty for those violations totals $154,700 and federal government fines continue to accrue at $300 per day until the facility is back in substantial compliance. The state may be assessing additional fines in the future.

The State of Wisconsin is carefully watching the HP Superior owned-facility due to the number of recent complaints. The facility is being watched so carefully that there are two full-time monitors in place. Complaints range from pressure sore problems, staffing ratio problems, insufficient standards of care, poor housekeeping, freedom from restraints, infection control, preventing accidents, staff in-service training, and medical record maintenance. The staffing ratio problem had been previously addressed after a state visit in April, but the plan of correction was only followed for one week. The corporate office fired the nursing home administrator, Gerald Hodges, for refusing to cut staff ratios further. The new administrator began in May and reportedly cut staff hours by 17%.

More complaints were received at the end of May and early June. One complaint was filed by a facility resident awaiting lung transplant on May 27. The complaint was that she waited from 25 to 45 minutes for assistance. She died the same day the complaint was made.

Conditions deteriorated further between June 4 and June 16. In one instance, a woman died after the staff failed to perform CPR despite a medical directive to do so. In another case, a fall-risk patient had to wait nearly an hour to be taken to the restroom. Staff members told surveyors about insufficient staff levels and that with the staffing provided, they were unable to provide good quality of care.

Nurse Eileen Lee was sentenced on Friday, July 18 in a horrific case of a nursing home facility "passing the buck". Ms. Lee, a floor nurse, was sentenced to four months in jail and three years probation. She was a floor nurse in 2005, when the facility that employed her, Mount Carmel Medical and Rehabilitation Center in Burlington, Wisconsin, put her in charge of wound care at the facility. Keep in mind, the job she was given was previously covered by five people. She was also eventually named Assistant Director of Nursing and finally the Director of Nursing at the facility.

Overwhelmed, Ms. Lee tried to do her jobs as assigned but the sheer magnitude of her multiple jobs overwhelmed her. She reportedly suffered from "compassion fatigue" and began to minimize the seriousness of the wounds on her patients and failed to properly care for the pressure sores of several residents, directly resulting in the wrongful death of one resident.

At her sentencing, the judge acknowledged that although Lee was "the face of the nursing home", she was not the sole responsible party nor the only guilty party in the case.