Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Now that Medicaid and Medicare contractors and state inspectors have been designated as federal employees, they cannot give evidence when cases arise involving private litigation unless the Department of Health and Human Services has approved their participation. The Bush Administration issued this new ruling last September without consulting or notifying the public.

The rule was supposedly enacted, according to the old administration, so that workers would not be diverted from their certification, survey, and enforcement responsibilities. However, some 15,000 nursing care facilities and 3 million patients could be affected by the restrictions.

Litigants on both sides are now finding it even harder to resolve any nursing home abuse lawsuits. Both plaintiffs and defendants have to jump through even more hoops to obtain depositions, court orders, and inspection reports. This new rule also makes it harder for patients and their families to get information about the care that a resident might be getting at a US nursing home that is the recipient of federal assistance.

National Senior Citizens Law Center Attorney Eric Carlson, one of the rule’s critics, says that this allows nursing homes and inspectors to keep certain bad practices secret, which negatively affects residents and their families. For example, one woman whose parents, Clare and Mavis Knutson, are 2 of the 15 patients that six teenage nursing home assistants are accused of harassing and abusing at an Albert Lea nursing home, is having a tough time getting information about the care her parents received at the nursing home.

The nursing home industry also says it is being affected by this block in information. For example, American Health Care Association legal counsel Priscilla Shoemaker says that the industry is having a hard time finding out what state inspectors are doing to determine which nursing homes should be issued citations or penalties or should be shut down.

Now more than ever, it is important that you work with an experienced Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer who knows how to get the information you need so that you can successfully pursue your nursing home abuse lawsuit.

New Rule Enacted by Bush Administration Impedes Cases Against Nursing Homes, Washington Post, February 24, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Nursing-home records closed off, The News & Observer, February 27, 2009

Continue reading " Nursing Home Lawsuits Are Harder to Pursue In the Wake of Bush Administration’s New Rule " »

The wife and guardian of an 80-year-old nursing home resident is suing the assisted living facility where he was staying for severe neglect and abuse. The nursing home abuse lawsuit is seeking $1 million.

According to the elder abuse complaint, her husband, who was suffering from advance dementia, was admitted to Elderberry Square. His wife, who visited him a number of times, found him unsupervised. One time, she reportedly found him sitting in his own waste matter. Her lawsuit contends that because he was left alone, he fell repeatedly and during one fall accident broke his wrist.

This is not the first nursing home abuse lawsuit filed against Elderberry Square that makes such allegations. In 2007, a lawsuit was filed accusing workers of leaving an Alzheimer’s patient alone on so many occasions that he fell a number of times. The complaint contends that the last fall accident led to his death.

Both nursing home abuse lawsuits accuse admissions and management of the nursing home of misrepresenting the facility as being a place that is properly equipped, staffed, and has the necessary experience to take care of patients with senile dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases require special medical care and attention. Failure to provide that care could be grounds for a nursing home neglect lawsuit.

The National Guidelines Clearinghouse Web site offers a number of dementia care recommendations for nursing homes that care for patients with related conditions, including:

• Develop an effective care plan.
• Tailor care to resident’s specific needs.
• Find ways that will allow each resident to be able to communicate with workers, such as speaking in direct, simple terms and having a resident work with a speech therapist.
• Assign the same staff members to a patient so that he or she can experience consistency.
• Create a safe and positive environment.
• Conduct routine assessment of the patient’s health and well-being.

Elder Assisted Living Facility Hit With Second Lawsuit, February 20, 2009

Florence assisted living facility sued for $1 million, KDRV, February 20, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Dementia: Hope Through Research, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Alzheimer's Caregivers Guide, Helpguide.org

Dementia, which most often occurs when a person is older, involves the loss of one’s mental abilities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Some signs that a person is beginning to suffer from dementia include memory loss, forgetfulness, getting lost while driving, having a difficult time doing complicated tasks, forgetting how to do a task, and becoming confused while talking to someone.

Eventually, a person afflicted with dementia may require the help of family members and friends to perform routine tasks. There also could come a time when a person with dementia will have to be moved to a US nursing home where he or she can get the necessary, specialized medical attention and care required to maintain a certain quality life. For example, a person with dementia may need the help of skilled nurses that know how to treat certain physical ailments or the support of nursing home workers that know what to do to prevent a person with dementia from falling.

Not only is it important for nursing homes that care for dementia patients to provide them with the proper medical care, but they must do what they can to keep them and other patients physically safe. For example, just last month, two nursing home patients with dementia became involved in a deadly altercation when WWE Hall of Famer and AWA legend Verne Gagne threw another patient, Helmut R. Guttman, onto the floor. Guttman died three days later. While Gagne is a suspect in Guttman’s nursing home death, he very likely was not aware of what he was doing and may not even remember what happened.

Nursing homes must also make sure that their workers are trained on how to care for patients with dementia so that they know what to do when a resident becomes anxious, angry, combative, or violent. Providing a specialized care plan for a patient with dementia can also help.

In the event that the nursing home neglect or abuse results in a nursing home patient with dementia getting hurt, injured, or dying, a Chicago nursing home abuse attorney can help you file a nursing home abuse claim or wrongful death lawsuit.

Dementia - and its dangers - overlooked, elder advocates say following Verne Gagne incident, TwinCities, February 21, 2009

AWA legend and WWE Hall of Famer Verne Gagne a suspect in roommate's death, Prowrestling.net, February 18, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Dealing with Dementia, NCPAMD.com

Dementia, Medline Plus

According to authorities, Illinois workers at the Arbor of Itasca long-term care facility ignored the sound of the security door alarm on the night that Sarah “Sally” Wentworth wandered out of the facility and froze to death outside. Wentworth’s daughters are suing the Chicago nursing home for wrongful death. Now, investigators are considering whether to file criminal charges against some of the workers.

One nursing home worker is suspected of barely glancing up when the door alarm, triggered by Wentworth’s electronic bracelet, went off early in the morning on February 5 because she was busy watching “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” She could be charged with criminal neglect.

Now, Illinois law enforcement officers are saying that nursing home workers may have covered up the circumstances surrounding Wentworth’s death by putting her back in her bed to make it appear as if she died in her sleep. Wentworth, a Chicago resident, was placed in the home because she suffered from dementia and numerous other complications.

While police were told she passed away while sleeping, authorities that arrived at the scene noticed that Wentworth was wearing a hospital gown instead of pajamas and had been placed on a gurney with an oxygen machine connected to her. All nine nursing home workers were interviewed by investigators who say they noticed that some of them gave conflicting reports. Authorities say obstruction of justice may be another criminal charge that could be filed.

Yesterday, the Arbor of Itasca confirmed that the nursing home workers that are under investigation for their alleged involvement in the elderly resident's death have been suspended.

Illinois Nursing Homes
There are specific protocols and procedures that must be followed by each Chicago nursing home. When failure to follow these regulations and steps leads to injuries or the death of a patient, the nursing home and its workers could be held liable for nursing home neglect, nursing home abuse, or wrongful death.

Suspensions come at Itasca nursing home, Daily Herald, February 20, 2009

Nursing home employees suspended, may faces charges in death, Daily Herald, February 19, 2009

Charges expected in nursing home resident death, ABC, February 18, 2009

Related Web Resources:

Arbor of Itasca

Illinois Department of Public Health

Three nursing home staffers are in jail following their arrests for their alleged involvement in the drugging deaths of three patients. The staffers, who have been affiliated with the Kern Valley Healthcare District, are Gwen Hughes, a former nursing director, Dr. Hoshang Pormir, a staff physician at the nursing home, and Debbi Hayes, the facility's former pharmacist.

The three of them are accused of using force to administer psychotropic medications for purposes of their own convenience rather than for the patients’ care. Hughes is charged with elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, Pormir is charged with elder abuse, and Hayes is charged with elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.

According to the attorney general’s office:
Hughes issued instructions that patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia be administered high doses of psychotropic drugs so that they would be calmer and easier to control. She wanted patients that were noisy, argued with her, or were disruptive in other ways to be given these drugs.

Following an ombudsman's report that a nursing home patient was forcibly injected, the Department of Health sent investigators who found that some 22 patients were administered these medications for such reasons. Two patients who didn’t want to take the drugs were reportedly physically held down and forced to receive injections.

Hughes also allegedly directed Hayes to fill the psychotropic drug prescriptions. The pharmacist is accused of followed these instructions without getting doctor approval.
Dr. Pormir eventually approved the drug prescriptions but he is accused of doing so only after they were administered and without examining the patients first so he could diagnose whether they needed to take the medications.

A number of nursing home patients allegedly experienced medical complications because they were given psychotropic drugs. Side effects are believed to include problems eating or drinking, lethargy, serious bodily injury, as well as death.

Medication Overdose at Nursing Homes
Overdosing a nursing home patient or medicating them for purposes other than what is required or prescribed can be grounds for an elder abuse lawsuit. Nursing home residents are supposed to receive the proper care and attention at long-term care facilities, and they aren’t supposed to be sedated for the convenience of staffers.

Nursing home staff lethally drugged patients, AFP, February 18, 2009

Reports detail fatal druggings at nursing facility, Bakersfield.com, February 19, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Read the Declaration in Support of Arrest Warrant and Felony Complaint (PDF)

Read the Felony Complaint (PDF)

Continue reading " Nursing Home Staffers Arrested for Alleged Role In Drugging Deaths of Three Residents " »

The use of physical restraints on US nursing home patients is falling, says USA Today. This information comes from self-reported data provided by the long-term care facilities to Medicare. Reportedly, unlike in 1991 when about 21.1% of nursing home residents were physically restrained on a regular basis, US nursing homes now, on average, use restraints to immobilize 5.5% of their resident population.

The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform says a physical restraint is a device used to restrict a resident’s physical movements. The kinds of patients who usually end up in restraints are nursing home residents who exhibit low cognitive abilities, patients requiring antipsychotic drugs, residents who cannot perform at least three every day tasks without help, and patients who are prone to falls.

While the government doesn’t bar nursing homes from using restraints, nursing home residents are legally entitled to be free of restraints, which cannot be used for purposes of convenience or discipline. The restraints also must be used in an appropriate manner and not for the purposes of abusing or neglecting a nursing home resident.

Some examples of physical restraints that might be used at a US nursing home:
• Ankle restraints
• Hand mitts
• Chairs that are designed to restrict a patient’s movements
• Clothing used to tie residents to beds or chairs

Use of physical restraints have been known to cause injuries, including muscle atrophy, strangulation, suffocation, trauma, and death.

The USA Today article reports that more can be done to further decrease how often physical restraints are used on nursing home residents. For example, providing patients with beds that aren’t as high off the ground, giving residents socks with non-skid soles, and improving pain managent so that patients don’t become too agitated that they have to be restrained.

If you fear that your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, you can take steps to remove him or her from the unpleasant and unsafe living situation.

Fewer care facilities use restraints for elderly residents, USA Today.com, February 17, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (PDF)

Guidelines On the Use of Physical Restraints in Nursing Homes, Atlanta Legal Aid Society

Continue reading " Use of Physical Restraints in US Nursing Homes is Declining, Says USA Today " »

A state investigation is accusing a US nursing home of being at fault in the death of a 91-year-old woman. Gladys Gall was living at the Presbyterian Homes in Arden Hills last year when she sustained a neck fracture.

Gall had advanced osteoporosis, which made her a fall risk. She needed the help of nursing staff to perform many daily tasks. She was also known to resist their help.

On April 18, 2008, she was taken to a hospital emergency room after she said she was experiencing neck and head pain. An imaging scan showed she was suffering from a neck fracture. The elderly patient, however, couldn’t remember how she sustained the injury.

When asked, nurses at the long-term care facility were unable to explain why she had what is called a hangman’s fracture. A neurosurgeon who has been helping with the investigation into Gall’s death, however, says the only way she could have sustained such a fracture was if she experienced trauma to her body. Gall died on April 28, 2008.

Also among the investigation’s findings:
• The fracture could only have been sustained during a fall accident or another violent incident.
• Even if Gall fell by herself, someone would have had to help her get up, which means that someone knows what happened to her but is refusing to tell investigators.
• The nursing home was at fault in the elderly patient's death because she sustained a serious injury while at the facility.

Presbyterian Homes in Arden Hills did not receive a citation for violating any federal or state nursing care standards because it conducted a complete investigation into Gall’s death and trained workers again so that they are now required to report fall accidents and other incidents.

Neck Fracture
A neck fracture usually involves at least one break in a person’s cervical bones. This is a serious fracture than requires immediate medical attention. It can result in paralysis or death.

Certain factors can put a person at higher risk of sustaining a neck fracture, including:
• Age
• Osteoporosis
• A decrease in muscle mass
• Head injury
• Another kind of traumatic injury

Nursing home abuse and neglect can seriously harm a resident and cause his or her health to rapidly deteriorate. US nursing homes are required to provide patients with a certain standard of care and they can held liable for personal injury or wrongful death if they fail to do so.

Arden Hills nursing home found at fault in death of woman, 91, with neck fracture,
Twin Cities, February 14, 2009

Neck Fracture, Aurora Health Care

Related Web Resources:
Elder Abuse, Helpguide.org

Nursing Home Abuse Overview, Justia

Continue reading " Nursing Home Found Liable for 91-Year-Old Resident’s Death Involving Neck Fracture " »

In Illinois, the family of Sarah Wentworth is suing the Arbor of Itasca, a Chicago suburb nursing home for her wrongful death. Wentworth died last week after she froze to death outside the long-term care facility.

The 89-year-old woman had been a resident at the long-term care facility for two years. Wentworth had dementia, and her family thought they had placed her in a nursing home where she was getting the care she needed.

She was found outside the nursing home in subfreezing temperatures on February 4. She was scantily clad and in her bare feet.

Her family is wondering how an elderly woman who couldn’t get out of bed without assistance managed to go through two doors and pass a nurse’s station to go outside. Wentworth’s walker was reportedly still in her bedroom and a security ankle bracelet she had on should have sounded the alarms when she walked through the doors.

In her family's Chicago nursing home neglect lawsuit, the plaintiffs are accusing the Chicago nursing home of “gross neglect” due to its failure to properly supervise the elderly woman and provide her with proper medical attention. The Illinois Department of Public Health is investigating the cause of her death and police are working with DuPage County prosecutors to determine whether criminal charges need to be filed.

If law enforcement officials find that nursing home staff purposely covered up what occurred, a felony charge of obstruction of justice could apply. Already, there is conflicting information coming from nine of the nursing home workers who were working the day Wentworth went outside.

Recently, the Arbor of Itasca was given a one star rating for quality of care by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This rating, which signifies “much below average,” is the lowest rating that the federal agency can give a US nursing home.

During the Chicago nursing home’s last yearly inspection, the state of Illinois found 22 violations, including failure to treat patients with bed sores and failure to keep the long-term care facility free of hazards that could cause injury to residents.

Nursing home neglect is a crime and grounds for a civil lawsuit against all negligent parties.

Family sues Itasca nursing home after woman dies, Daily Herald, February 12, 2009

Nursing Home Death A Warning To Other Families, CBS2Chicago.com, February 11, 2009

Related Web Resources:

The Arbor of Itasca

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

On Monday, the state of Illinois released its latest inspection report of the Berwyn Rehabilitation Center. The report cites the Chicago area nursing home for six violations. While this is an improvement from last year, when an annual review of the nursing home reported 29 deficiencies, any violation at a US nursing home is one too many.

Among the inspectors’ findings:
• Nursing home workers were slow to attend to resident wounds.
• The Chicago nursing home did not have a working mechanical lift on the premise at the time of the inspection. The device is used to move resident who need help.
• Failure to regularly bathe some residents.
• Failure to move patients from their beds for several days in a row.
• Failure to provide required pain medication and other medicine as prescribed.

The Berwyn Rehabilitation Facility is one of 81 Illinois nursing homes in the Chicago area to receive a one-star ranking from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which recently introduced a 5-star rating system that ranks US nursing homes according to the quality of care they provide residents. According to Eric Rothner, a Berwyn Rehabilitation Center, LLC manager, the company has taken steps to improve care at the nursing home since taking over ownership of the long-term care facility last Spring. Changes have included adding better lighting and hiring more staff members.

It was just last March when inspectors cited the home for nearly 30 violations (a significant amount even for a nursing home with a one star ranking), including allowing residents to sit in their feces, failure to treat bedsores, and allowing patients to sustain bruises while being transported in a mechanical lift.

Last summer, an overweight resident suffocated after getting stuck between side rails and an inflatable mattress. All significant violations were corrected by the end of the year. Now, however, residents at the Chicago nursing home appear to be facing new problems.

Chicago nursing homes are required to provide residents with the quality of nursing home care that they need. If a patient gets hurt or dies, the long-term care facility and workers can be held responsible for nursing home neglect or abuse.

New violations alleged at troubled Berwyn nursing home, Chicago Tribune, February 10, 2009

Misery: Inside a 1-star nursing home, Chicago Tribune, February 9, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Berwyn Rehabilitation Center, National Nursing Home Watch List

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Continue reading " Chicago Area Nursing Home is Cited for More Health Violations " »

The family a woman that died after eating Salmonella-tainted peanut butter at a nursing home is suing the peanut butter manufacturer for her wrongful death. Shirley Mae Almer, 72, died on December 21, 2008.

The defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit are Peanut Corporation of America and King Nut Companies. The complaint contends that the defendants neglected to safely make, package, and distribute the peanut product, correctly supervise and train employees, create and maintain the appropriate standard of hygiene at the peanut product plant, properly test its products, and ensure that cross-contamination did not occur.

The Salmonella contamination has led to the recall of hundreds of products that may contain peanut products from the manufacturing plant. Already, there have been reports liking the tainted peanut products to 8 deaths and over 500 incidents of Salmonella food poisoning. More than 100 people have required medical attention.

Food in Nursing Homes
Ilinois nursing homes are supposed to make sure that the food they provide residents is clean and free from any harmful bacteria that could make patients sick. It is also the responsibility of nursing homes to make sure that they cater to the special dietary needs of any residents. Failure to fulfill these duties could be grounds for an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit.

The Atlanta Legal Aid Society offers a list of food and nutrition requirements that US nursing homes should adhere to, such as:

• Serving food in an sanitary manner.
• Making sure meals satisfy each residents dietary needs.
• Hot food needs to be served hot and cold foods should be served cold.
• Providing three meals a day.
• Allowing no more than 14 hours to pass between dinner and breakfast.
• Providing assistance to any resident that needs help eating or drinking.
• Making sure that residents eat their food and drink enough that they don’t become dehydrated.

First Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed In Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Peanut Corporation Of America, Medical News Today, January 29, 2009

Food and Nutrition Issues In Nursing Homes, Atlanta Legal Aid Society

Related Web Resource:
Salmonella typhimurium, Resource Center for Biodefense Proteomics Research

Salmonellosis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Continue reading " Nursing Home Resident Dies from Salmonella Outbreak and Family Sues Peanut Manufacturer for Wrongful Death " »

In Illinois, police in East Moline have arrested nursing home employee Paul Hubbard for allegedly raping an 82-year-old female resident. Court records indicate that the Port Byron suspect works for the Parkview Terrace Nursing Home and that another worker spotted him having sex with the elderly woman, who was not able to consent to the act. The elderly resident was transported to Illinois hospital and later released. Hubbard is behind bars and has been charged with criminal sexual assault.

According to the nursing home, the Illinois Department of Public Health conducted an investigation into the incident and found that the nursing home was not in violation of any regulations or rules. The department, however, says it has not yet finished its report.

Rape
Rape is a serious crime that can cause serious physical injuries and emotional trauma to the victim. Rape usually involves nonconsensual sex between two people where one person is the instigator of the sexual act and the other person is either forced or coerced into it or is in a state of mind where he or she is incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.

Many nursing home residents who have been victims of rape by a nursing home worker, another resident, or a visitor to the facility have lacked the ability to consent or refuse to engage in sexual acts. For example, a nursing home resident may be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, be physically incapacitated, have lost the ability to speak, or be physically incapacitated.

Nursing homes are responsible for making sure that their patients do not become the victims of such a violent and violating crime. Failure to ensure this duty of care can be grounds for a nursing home abuse or neglect lawsuit against the home and/or the perpetrator of the sexual assault crimes.

82-yr-old woman allegedly raped at nursing home, WQAD, February 5, 2009

Related Web Resources:
East Moline nursing home sued for negligence, Quad-Times, November 13, 2008

Illinois Department of Public Health

A former nursing home worker has been sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation for financial elder abuse. Ramil Panlaqui had pleaded no contest to three felony counts of financial elder abuse.

The 42-year-old former nursing home caregiver worked at Atherton Healthcare, where he allegedly stole checkbooks from two elderly residents, ages 88 and 75. Prosecutors say Panlaqui took approximately $4,000 from his victims. Another check from a third victim was found after the former caregiver was arrested. As part of Panlaqui's sentencing, a judge has ordered him to return the money he stole from the victims’ accounts to Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Financial Elder Abuse
Financial elder abuse involves the financial exploitation of an elderly person. Some examples of financial elder abuse:

• Stealing the elderly person’s money
• Forgery
• Preventing the victim from having access to his or her money
• Coercing or forcing an elderly person to sign a Power of Attorney
• Making changes to an elderly person’s will without their consent or by unethical persuasion
• Extortion

Some Possible Signs of Financial Elder Abuse:
• Unusual bank account activity
• Sudden revisions to the elderly person’s will
• Unexplained ATM withdrawals
• New investments that are made even though the elderly person is too sick or incapacitated to make such decisions
• Bounced checks that should have been easily paid from the victim's funds.

Unfortunately, financial elder abuse is an all too common form of nursing home abuse that occurs in US long-term care facilities.

Pacifica man gets 6 months in jail for embezzling from nursing home residents, San Mateo County Times, February 2, 2009

Financial Elder Abuse

Related Web Resource:
Financial Elder Abuse, National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse

Continue reading " Former Nursing Home Caregiver Goes to Jail for Financial Elder Abuse " »