Assisted Living Facility Settles Nursing Home Negligence Allegations for $75,000
Friendship Manor, an assisted living facility, is ordered to pay over $75,000 to settle allegations of nursing home neglect. The fine, imposed after a nursing home resident lost her leg to gangrene and died, was initially $101,250, but the assisted living facility’s owner appealed the original amount.
The patient who died, 89-year-old Ruth Louden, was admitted to Friendship Manor in 2008 after fracturing her ankle during a fall accident. Her stay at the nursing home was supposed to be brief.
Doctors instructed the nursing home to monitor her skin during each shift to look for swelling and redness. Nursing home workers were also supposed to observe the circulation in her leg.
According to state inspectors, Louden complained that she was in a great deal of pain for four weeks. Although nursing home workers gave her medicine to ease her suffering, they allegedly never took off her stocking to check the leg during her entire stay at the facility. A physical therapy aid eventually saw blood coming through Loudon’s stocking and noticed that the leg smelled like it was rotting.
At a hospital emergency room, a doctor saw that Louden appeared to still be using the wound dressing that was placed on her leg the month before. After Louden was diagnosed with gangrene, her leg was amputated.
Following the procedure, Louden’s health got worse. Three months later, she died.
Illinois Nursing Home Negligence
Families of nursing home patients who received poor care while staying at an assisted living facility may be able to pursue Illinois nursing home neglect damages. Other examples of inappropriate nursing care:
• Depriving the patient of a healthy diet
• Not catering meals according to the patient's medical and nutritional needs
• Not cleaning and dressing wounds regularly
• Ignoring a patient's requests or complaints
• Not checking on a nursing resident on a regular basis
Iowa Nursing Home Settles Neglect Allegations for $75K, Claims Journal, January 14, 2010
Grinnell nursing home to pay $75,000, DesMoinesRegister.com, January 13, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Gangrene, eMedicineHealth
Woundcare Information Network, Medicaledu.com
