Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

According to the General Accounting Office, Illinois fared poorly in a study that ranked the state #2 for its number of nursing homes that received “most poorly” assessments when it comes to quality care measures. The study, released Monday, reported that 47 Illinois nursing homes were noted for poor quality.

Assisted living facilities were rated based on nursing home bedsore prevention procedures, staffing levels, and measures taken to prevent nursing home abuse and neglect. Nursing homes that were recognized for “poor performance” on average exhibited 46% more deficiencies that were harmful to residents than the assisted living facilities that did not rate as badly.

This news is disturbing, considering that over 92,000 people currently reside in Illinois nursing homes. Many of them are very sick/frail and unable to take care of themselves. This makes them vulnerable to becoming victims of nursing home abuse or neglect.

Sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, elder financial abuse, negligent care, failure to supervise, and medical negligence are just some examples of nursing home abuse and neglect. Nursing home neglect and abuse inflict serious harm on patients who may not even know what is happening or are unable to report the incident.

Nursing home workers, assisted living facilities, and the companies that manage them must be held accountable for nursing home abuse and neglect so that our sick and elderly are safe while getting the care that they need.

Nursing home neglect and abuse can lead to injuries, deterioration of the victim’s health, and death. If you think that your sick or elderly family member might be experiencing nursing home abuse or neglect, you should contact a Chicago nursing home abuse law firm as soon as possible.

Illinois ranks high on bad nursing home report, Chicago Business, September 29, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Read the GAO Nursing Home Study (PDF)

Chicagoland's Nursing Homes, Chicago Tribune

According to the Chicago Tribune, a string of violent incidents in Illinois nursing homes in the last 17 months involving patients inflicting harm on other residents exemplifies the kind of dangers that can result when elderly and sick nursing home residents are housed with mentally ill patients—especially those with criminal records.

Government records reveal that over 15% of the 92,225 nursing home residents residing in Illinois assisted living facilities are mentally ill. 3,000 of these mentally ill patients were convicted of serious felony crimes:

• 82 murderers
• 185 armed robbers
• 179 sex offenders

A number of mentally ill nursing home residents are significantly younger and physically stronger than the older, frailer patients that share the Illinois facility with them. This can prove to be a problem.

For example, police arrested a 21-year-old nursing home patient who raped an elderly elderly resident in her bedroom. The alleged attacker has a criminal record in addition to acute psychiatric issues. In another nursing home abuse incident, a 24-year-old mentally ill woman with a history of prostitution and drug use beat a man in a wheelchair so badly that he died of his head injuries.

Yet according to The Tribune, the nursing home industry, law enforcement officials, and the government are not doing enough to oversee the young residents who are transferred to Illinois nursing homes after spending time in psychiatric wards, shelters, and jail. The state also isn’t doing a complete enough job when it comes to performing background checks on new residents, whose criminal records are then understated. The Tribune also discovered that the Illinois nursing homes that house the most felons are often the ones with the lowest nursing staff levels.

Meantime, the Health Care Council of Illinois, the state’s largest nursing home owners' association, is questioning the practice of allowing sick or geriatric patients to live with mentally ill criminals, including those with felony records. Obviously not all mentally ill patients are a danger to others, but there are those who have caused serious injury to or killed a resident.

It is a nursing home’s responsibility to supervise all of its residents. This means making sure that patients that could pose a danger to other residents are either kept in a separate area of the facility and/or are supervised more closely. Failure to fulfill this duty of care is nursing home negligence, especially if one patient ends up raping, beating, molesting, or killing another resident.

There are ways to prevent these horrible crimes from happening. Our Chicago nursing home neglect lawyers know how traumatic it can be for your loved one to become the victim of a violent crime because the people you hired to provide nursing care failed to do their job.

Illinois nursing homes mix felons, seniors, Chicago Tribune, September 29, 2009

Mentally ill endanger nursing home patients

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes in Illinois

Health Care Council of Illinois

In the second Illinois nursing home negligence against the Rosewood Care Center chain, it took a jury less then two hours to rule in favor of plaintiff Clifford Emons over the wrongful death of Jane Schwartz. Emons sued the Madison County, Illinois nursing home on behalf of Schwartz’s estate.

Court documents indicate that Schwartz broke her hip and wrist when she fell while staying at the Alton assisted living facility. The nursing home negligence trial lasted less than two days after Judge Andy Matoesian struck the defendant’s pleadings on the issue of negligence. The jury took less than two hours to deliberate what to award the plaintiff.

In another nursing home negligence lawsuit against the Rosewood Care Center, this one directed at the chain’s Edwardsville long-term care facility, a jury awarded $150,000 damages to Paul Graves for his deceased father, who fractured his hip while staying at the Illinois nursing home.

According to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s August 4 issue, older people who break a hip increase have a 25% chance of dying within five years, while the five-year fatality rate for older people suffering from a spinal fracture is 16%. The study involved more than 7,700 people over age 50.

The study estimates that one out of every six women over age fifty will fracture a hip. Fall-related fractures can also lead to dementia, cognitive impairment, balance problems, impaired vision, and the side effects that can arise from a person having to take different medications.

There are steps that nursing homes can take to prevent fall accidents from happening---especially if a patient is a known risk for falling. Elderly and sick people are prone to serious injuries when they fracture or break a hip or another body part during a fall accident. Health issues can arise that lead to fatalities.

Jury finds for plaintiff in Alton nursing home negligence suit, The Record, September 22, 2009

With a Broken Hip Comes Higher Risk for Dying, Medline Plus, August 4, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Hip Fractures in the Elderly, Cleveland Clinic

A woman facing seven felony charges over at least four questionable deaths at a McHenry County nursing home says that contrary to claims by Illinois police, she never admitted that she told staff members not to follow proper procedures when getting rid of the morphine used on patients who allegedly may have died from medication overdoses. Charges against her over the alleged Illinois nursing home negligence incidents include two counts of obstructing justice and five counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care resident.

Penny Whitlock is the former nursing home supervisor of Woodstock Residence. Her testimony took place during a hearing over her motion to suppress testimony that was likely to accuse her of making incriminating statements about what she knew about the residents’ deaths. Whitlock's attorney says that Illinois State Police failed to honor her civil rights when they didn’t read her Miranda rights until the interview where she is accused of making incriminating statements was well under way.

The former nursing home supervisor is accused of discovering that Marty Himebaugh, a former nurse at the McHenry County facility, may have been giving terminally ill patients excessive morphine doses to kill them. Whitlock is also accused of then telling Himebaugh she could continue in her role as the “Angel of Death.”

Charges against Himebaugh include single counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substances and four counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care facility resident and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

The two former nursing home workers have denied all allegations.

At least two Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuits alleging wrongful death have been filed over the alleged morphine overdoses.

Even if an Illinois nursing home resident is terminally ill, he or she is still owed a certain duty of care. Failure to provide that care is nursing home neglect.

Nursing home supervisor denies admission in death probe, The Daily Herald, September 17, 2009

Illinois “Angel of Death” Nursing Home Abuse Cases Leads to Two Wrongful Death Lawsuits, Malman Law, October 7, 2008

Judge to rule on comments in 'Angel of Death' case, Northwest Herald, September 17, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Citizens for Better Care

Nursing Homes in Illinios

In Illinois, Certified Health Care Management Inc. and Dr. Carl Johnson have settled a Cook County nursing home neglect lawsuit alleging wrongful death for $700,000. The Illinois nursing home negligence complaint was filed on behalf of the estate of Donald McCormick Jr. The decedent was just 43-years-old when he died in November 2002.

McCormick was a resident at Prairie View Care Center, a Charleston, Illinois nursing home that Certified Health Care Management was managing at the time.

McCormick was admitted to the assisted living facility in March 2002. Because of his impairments, he needed the help of nursing home workers to perform daily tasks. He also was unable to communicate with workers about his needs. As a result, it was up to the staff at the nursing home to make sure that he was getting the care that he needed until he was discharged in May 2002.

During his nearly two-month stay at the Illinois nursing home, McCormick suffered from severe dehydration and malnourishment and developed a serious bedsore. The condition of the decubitus ulcer was so severe that one of his bones became exposed. According to the Cook County nursing home neglect complaint, McCormick’s injuries were a result of negligence by Johnson and the management company for failing to provide the 43-year-old resident with the personal care and medical attention that he needed.

Per case documents, Johnson has agreed to pay $100,000 and Certified Health Care Management says it will pay $600,000.

Many nursing home residents are placed in long-term care facilities because family members do not have the resources or experience to give them the full-time care that they need. In addition to needing medical care a nursing home resident may need help eating, bathing, getting dressed, or getting around.

It is the responsibility of all Illinois assisted living facilities to give residents the medical attention and personalized care that they require. For example, in some cases, failure to bathe a patient or change the sheets can lead to infections, illnesses, and deteriorating health that can prove catastrophic for the resident.

Management company, doctor reach settlement in Charleston nursing home death, Herald-Review, September 18, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Nursing homes in Illinois

Bedsores, Mayo Clinic

Our Chicago nursing home neglect lawyers are aware of how patients with Alzheimer’s and other kinds of dementia can be vulnerable to becoming the victims of nursing home abuse and neglect, and we would like to offer a free case evaluation to anyone who is worried about their loved one's care.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that can go undetected by family members, which is why awareness is key to diagnosis, treatment, and the proper care. Around the world, September 21st is Alzheimer’s Day. While many people think of Alzheimer’s as an “old person’s disease” everyone will grow old eventually.

Already, over 35 million people around the world are afflicted with Dementia or Alzheimer’s. That’s 10% more than in 2005. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, which released the 2009 World Alzheimer’s Report, some 65.7 million people are expected to have Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia by 2030 and that number is expected to reach 115.4 million by 2050.

Not only is important that resources and manpower go toward finding a cure and better ways to treat Alzheimer’s and other dementia, but diagnosis and care of those afflicted with either condition are key.

People suffering from dementia often need specialized attention and supervision. If you opt to place your loved one in a Chicago nursing home, you need to make sure that the nursing workers are properly trained to care for and treat people suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s. Not providing a resident with the care that he or she needs is nursing home neglect and can be grounds for a Chicago, Illinois nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Memory loss, behavioral problems, and communication challenges can all affect someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia. This can lead to certain risks, such as wandering, elopement, a greater vulnerability to becoming the victim of physical abuse or sexual assault, or health issues.

Report: 35 Million-Plus Worldwide Have Dementia, CBS 2, September 21, 2009

Related Web Resources:
World Alzheimer's Day

Alzheimer's Caregivers Guide, Helpguide.org

Nursing homes in Chicago, Illinois, The City of Chicago

Continue reading " World Alzheimer’s Day Recognizes Persons Afflicted with the Disease " »

The Illinois Department of Public Health and the nursing home Bourbonnais Terrace may both have neglected to notify police in a timely manner about two alleged incidents of sex abuse involving one resident victim and one resident perpetrator. The nursing home patient accused of sexual abuse reportedly has a past conviction for murder.

The allegedly incidents occurred at the Kankakee County assisted living facility in January but the state didn’t find out about it until it conducted its yearly inspection in March.

The state is now fining the Bourbonnais nursing home $20,000, which the assisted living facility is contesting.

It is the responsibility of all nursing homes to protect residents from becoming the victim of any kind of Illinois nursing home abuse or neglect. This includes protecting residents from each other—especially if a patient has a history of violence or his or her mental illness increases the risk that the resident might harm another patient. The assisted living facility is obligated by state law to report any incidents of nursing home abuse or neglect and they can be held liable for nursing home negligence if they fail to fulfill their duty of care to a resident.

Sexual abuse does occur in nursing homes. The assailant can be a nursing home worker, another resident, a visitor, or an intruder to the assisted living facility. Patients receiving private nursing care can also becoming the victims of Chicago nursing negligence or abuse.

Just last week, a caretaker pleaded guilty to raping an 80-year-old elderly resident at a privately run assisted living facility. The Humberto Rodriguez, 50, has been sentenced to time in prison and is now a registered sex offender for life. His attorney claims that Rodriguez and the victim were friendly before the assault happened.

It doesn’t matter how friendly a nursing home worker and a patient are with each other. Sexual abuse of any kind is wrong, a crime, and can be grounds for a Chicago nursing home abuse lawsuit.

Police look into sex abuse allegations, The Daily Journal, September 18, 2009

Santa Rosa caretaker admits raping 80-year-old woman, Press Democrat, September 17, 2009

Related Web Resources:
The National Center on Elder Abuse

Illinois Department of Public Health

In Rock Island County Circuit Court, the guardian of an 82-year-old nursing home resident who was sexually assaulted by Paul D. Hubbard, a former nursing home worker at the Parkview Terrace, is suing the assisted living facility and its former employee for Illinois personal injury.

The East Moline nursing home negligence lawsuit is a result of the sexual assault incident, which occurred on February 1. The complaint accuses Hubbard of committing the sexual crime while charging the Illinois nursing home with negligence.

Per the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, the victim and her guardian, are accusing the East Moline nursing home of neglecting to conduct a background check on Hubbard, failing to check his references, neglecting to properly interview him, and not testing his personality before hiring him. The complaint argues that if only the Illinois assisted living facility had performed these tasks, the nursing home would have realized that Hubbard was potentially dangerous.

The plaintiffs are accusing the Illinois nursing home of failing to supervise Hubbard, failing to train workers to identify risks, providing inadequate security at the facility, and of insufficient staffing.

Hubbard, who pleaded guilty to criminal sexual assault, is serving a four-year sentence for the crime.

While it is the responsibility of all Illinois nursing homes to make sure there is adequate security on the premise to keep robbers and assailants out, they also are responsible for making sure that the people they hire as nursing home workers do not commit sexual crimes or physical assault crimes against nursing home residents or other workers. Nursing home workers must also be properly supervised to make sure that they do their jobs properly and do not engage in any kind of nursing home abuse or neglect.

Nursing home residents, because of their advanced age or weakened physical state or mental illness, are vulnerable to becoming the victims of nursing abuse or neglect. It is important that Illinois nursing homes do everything possible to protect them from such horrible crimes.

Sexual assault victim files suit against nursing home, Quad-City Times, September 14, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Crimes Overlooked..., Wisconsin State Journal, March 4, 2002

Sex offenders living in Illinois nursing homes, Chicago Sun-Times, April 24, 2005

According to a statistical review of 82 individual studies, nonprofit nursing homes, on the average, provide a higher level of care than for-profit homes. The study was published online last month in the British Medical Journal.

Data from the different studies was collected from tens of thousands of nursing homes—primarily in the US—between 1965 and 2003. 40 of the 82 studies favored nonprofit assisted living facilities in terms of statistically significant comparisons. Three of the studies favored non-profit nursing homes for all significant comparisons.

Per the authors’ meta analysis, nonprofit nursing residences provided better quality of care than their for-profit counterparts in the areas of staffing, bedsore care, and physical restraint use (less frequent in nonprofit homes). This is disturbing when you consider that not giving a nursing home patient the care he or she can receive, and needs, can lead to injuries and illnesses as a result of nursing home negligence.

The study implies that 7,000 of the 80,000 nursing home residents suffering from bedsores live in for-profit nursing homes. The findings also indicate that nursing home residents would receive an additional 500,000 hours of care/day if for-profit nursing homes were replaced with nonprofit assisted living facilities. The death rate in for-profit versus nonprofit dialysis facilities is also higher. Nonprofit assisted living facilities also were cited for fewer deficiencies during governmental assessments.

According to the study’s senior author, Dr. Godon Guyatt, nonprofit homes are less concerned about spending their money in ways that satisfy shareholders.

Of the 1.5 million people living in almost 16,000 US nursing homes, about 2/3rds of nursing home residents live in for-profit assisted living facilities. Over 3 million people will spend at least a portion of time in a US nursing home in 2009.

The thought that any nursing home would provide a patient with anything but the quality of care needed is disturbing. The idea that for-profit nursing homes might be giving residents a less superior quality of nursing care than their nonprofit counterparts is upsetting when you consider how many people may opt to place their sick or elderly loved ones in these for-profit facilities because they believe that the care provided might be better.

Nursing home abuse or negligence can be grounds for a Chicago nursing home abuse lawsuit if a patient gets hurt or dies.

Nonprofit Nursing Homes Provide Better Care, Major Study Finds, Science Daily, August 20, 2009

Nursing Homes, Medicare.gov

Related Web Resources:
British Medical Journal

Investigators were disturbed to discover that residents at an illegal adult day care group home were forced residents to live in prison camp conditions. They reportedly were forced to stay in chicken coops and use buckets as toilets. The senior home is not licensed. A number of the residents are mentally disabled.

According to City Attorney James Penman, 22 patients were crammed into three rundown buildings that all lacked plumbing. Razor wire fences and padlocked gates surrounded the illegal elder facility. The house had reportedly be converted into part of the facility and people were residing in rooms as small as 6 feet. Some rooms contained a mattress and two beds.

Last Friday, Pensri Sophar Dalton, the owner of the senior home, was arrested. Police have charged her with 16 counts of causing harm to elderly people.

The facility is no longer in operation. The residents were either transferred to licensed care homes or picked up by relatives.

Our Chicago nursing home negligence lawyers are disturbed to hear that so many residents may have been living under such squalid and unsanitary conditions at a supposed elder care facility.

In order to legally function as a proper nursing home, an elder care facility must obtain the proper licensing. There are hygiene requirements and care protocols and sanitation procedures that must be followed.

The sick, the elderly, and the mentally disabled are especially at risk of becoming the victims of nursing home abuse or neglect. The damage suffered by a nursing negligence victim can impact his or her physical health and emotional well-being. It is a crime to abuse or neglect an elderly person.

Obtaining financial recovery can allow your loved one to cover costs and damages from the nursing home negligence incident.

Alleged elder abuse in San Bernardino, ABC Local, September 5, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Division of Professional Regulation, State of Illinois

Nursing Homes in Illinois, Illinois Department of Public Health

The family of 73-year-old Verda Henry says she died because of nursing home neglect. In their wrongful death lawsuit against Sutton Park Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, they contend that the grandmother of 15 died in August 2007 because she had a bedsore that became seriously infected. The plaintiffs are also suing South Shore Medical Center, which is located across the street from the nursing home.

Henry was admitted to the long-term care facility in 2005 after she injured her arm during a fall accident. She thought she would undergo therapy and could go home in a matter of weeks. She was still at the home two years later despite repeated requests that she be allowed to leave.

Henry’s daughter, Patricia, said she and her kids would visit her mother for hours at a time. During those visits, she said the nurse on duty appeared to be too busy to check on her mother or feed her. She says that Henry eventually grew so weak that she became immobile.

Patricia says that she noticed the bedsore on her mother’s tailbone when she was changing her. By this time the decubitus ulcer was infected. Patricia says her mother screamed because the doctor had to scrape off skin. She claims that her mother's bones and spinal cord were visible.

Bedsores
Our Chicago nursing home negligence lawyers are aware at the fact that bedsores are easily preventable if patients get the proper care. We also know that pressure sores are treatable if they are diagnosed as soon as possible. There is no excuse for a nursing home resident to die because nursing home workers were neglectful and did not:

• Help to turn a patient.
• Keep the skin moisturized.
• Check the patient regularly to make sure sores haven't developed.
• Give the resident a mattress that relieves pressure.
• Provide the appropriate nutritional supplements.

Elderly and sick residents stay at nursing homes because they need specialized care. Neglecting a nursing home patient can be grounds for a Chicago wrongful death lawsuit.

Family sue nursing home after fatal bedsore horror takes matriarch's life, NY Daily News, September 9, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Bedsores.org

Fighting Bedsores With a Team Approach, NY Times, February 19, 2008

A nursing home worker says that the Caseyville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center fired her after she reported that another employee was abusing a resident at the assisted living facility. Ronda Washington says she told her supervisor about the alleged Illinois nursing home abuse incident on the day that she saw it happen in February 2009.

Washington says she believed the employee’s actions violated the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act. She contends that even though the Illinois nursing home is obligated to notify the government about the alleged abuse, the assisted living facility did not do so.

Washington says she approached her supervisor on a number of occasions to inquire as to when the abuse would be reported. She said she was worried that the employee would abuse more workers.

Washington says that on August 21, after approaching the Illinois nursing home again to inquire about whether or not the facility had fulfilled its obligation to report the alleged nursing home abuse incident, the long-term care home fired her.

Illinois nursing homes must report and investigate any incidents of possible nursing home abuse or neglect. Failure to do so is negligence and can result in more abuse or neglect incidents occurring, which could place the life of a patient or multiple nursing home residents at risk. Nursing home abuse can result in not just physical injuries, but also in psychological and emotional trauma that can cause a patient’s health to deteriorate.

If you suspect that your loved one is the victim of nursing home violence, you need to contact a Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer right away.

Nursing home worker claims she was fired after reporting abuse, The Record, September 3, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Nursing Home Care Act

Nursing Homes in Illinois

Heidi Leon, a former nursing assisted, has plead guilty to obstruction of justice and criminal neglect in the Itasca, Illinois nursing home negligence-related death of patient Sarah Wentworth. The 89-year-old resident died last winter when she froze to death after she wandered from the Arbor of Itasca, a suburban Chicago nursing home, in near zero temperature.

Leon neglected to check the door alarm when it went off at around 2am on February 5. This allowed Wentworth, who was barefoot, to leave the Itasca nursing home undetected. According to autopsy results, the elderly resident’s cause of death was hypothermia.

Leon is accused of not only failing to check the door after the alarm went off but of deactivating the signal and returning to the television show that she was watching.

It wasn’t until three hours later, conducting a bed check, that the former nursing home aid discovered that Wentworth was no longer in the building. The elderly patient's body was later found in the courtyard.

The elderly patient, who was suffering from dementia, had fallen, injuring her leg and chin. DuPage County prosecutors say it appears that she tried to crawl back to the nursing home.

On Monday, Leon apologized to Wentworth’s relatives in the Wheaton courtroom. Per her plea deal, Leon received credit for the six months she has spent in jail since she was arrested and is on probation for 30 months. She could have ended up serving a five-year prison sentence.

A police probe determined that nursing workers tried to conceal the way the woman died by putting her back in her room and changing the clothes that she had been wearing when she wandered away from the nursing home.

Last February, Wentworth’s daughters sued The Arbor of Itasca for Chicago nursing home negligence resulting in their mother’s wrongful death.

Nurse's aide guilty in elderly woman's death, Chicago Sun-Times, August 31, 2009

Family sues Itasca nursing home after woman dies, Chicago Tribune, February 11, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Ways to prevent dementia patients from wandering, The Seattle Times, June 4, 2009

The National Institute for Elopement Prevention and Resolution