Nursing Home Staffers Arrested for Alleged Role In Drugging Deaths of Three Residents
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)
In Illinois's Lake County, Will County, DuPage County, and Cook County, Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Steve Malman will fight for your right to financial recovery. Contact the Law Offices of Steven J. Malman & Associates, PC today.
