Chicago Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers: Long-Term Care Facility Fined $16,000 After Patient Found with Maggots Crawling Out of His Leg
State regulators are fining the Azalea Court nursing home $16,000 because a patient that was discovered on the floor who was injured had maggots in his leg cast. The fine against the US nursing home was issued in March.
According to the state inspection report from August 2008, the nursing home neglected to develop a comprehensive care plan for the resident to deal with his broken leg. Although the leg wound and cast should have been tended to every few days, documentation provided by the long-term care facility noted that the patient’s leg was taken care of just once a week. As a result, the patient’s leg became infested with maggots.
State regulators also placed the nursing home on its “watch list” because of its poor performance results during recent inspections. It received one out of five stars for its total inspection grade. In April 2008, Azalea Court received a “J” grade, which meant that nursing home residents’ safety and health were in “immediate jeopardy” from possible mistreatment and abuse.
Azalea says it is working hard to improve the care that it provides residents. The nursing home maintains that quality care is the nursing home’s primary priority.
Maggots that are found in a nursing home patient’s wound can be a sign that workers at the facility have neglected to provide the resident with the proper care needed to treat the injury. Nursing neglect lawsuits have been filed for this very reason.
Earlier this year, the family of a 95-year-old nursing home resident sued Winchester Centre for Health and Rehabilitation for nursing home neglect. Their complaint accuses the long-term care facility of causing Lucy Hale to suffer from malnutrition, poor hygiene, weight loss, dehydration, and bedsores with maggot infestation.
In 2008, the daughter of a nursing home patient whose bedsore was ignored for so long that it developed gangrene and became infested with maggots sued Parkwood Place nursing home for nursing home neglect. Her father, Haviland Mekeel, had to have his foot amputated and he died soon after.
Maggots infest West Palm Beach nursing home resident, Palm Beach Post, June 3, 2009
Maggots In Elderly Woman's Bedsore Trigger Lawsuit, WSBT, March 15, 2009
Related Web Resource:
Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov
