Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Juan Riostrirado is suing Glenbridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre for Chicago, Illinois nursing home negligence. Riostrirado says that doctors had to amputate his ring finger because the nursing home failed to properly diagnose and treat injuries he sustained during a fall accident. The alleged Chicago nursing home neglect caused him to suffer from gangrene, which led to the finger amputation.

Riostrirado says he fell and struck his hand on a heater at the Cook County assisted living facility on Dec. 7, 2008. He claims that for nearly two weeks, no one at the Niles nursing home documented his injury. It wasn’t until December 19, 2008 that a nurse noted that his right finger was swollen and should be monitored for five days. No more notes were made for another week after that entry.

On January 4, 2009, a notation was made about Riostrirado’s finger, which was now necrotic, swollen, and causing him pain. On January 5, he was diagnosed with gangrene. On January 9, he underwent surgery to have his finger amputated.

Riostrirado’s Cook County nursing home negligence lawsuit is seeking over $50,000 in damages. He is accusing the Chicago suburb nursing home of poorly supervising its residents and failing to treat his fall injuries in a timely fashion.

Chicago, Nursing Home Neglect
Ignoring a patient, failing to properly supervise, failure to properly diagnose, failure to monitor illnesses or injuries, failure to provide the proper medical and nursing care, and failure to properly feed or bathe a resident are just some examples of Chicago, Illinois nursing home neglect.

Man sues nursing home after losing finger, Niles Herald-Spectator

Related Web Resources:
Gangrene, eMedicineHealth

Glenbridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Niles, Illinois

In the battle to protect nursing home residents from violent patients, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says that more unannounced spot-checks are going to occur to make sure that any convicted criminals living as residents in assisted living facilities are not a danger to their co-residents. She calls this initiative “Operation Guardian,” which will concentrate on assisted-living facilities for the poor.

The spot-checks come after the arrest-warrant checks in December and January that were instigated to find criminals who should be behind bars rather than living in assisted living facilities. 12 residents were arrested at 4 Chicago, Illinois nursing homes. An employee at one of the Chicago assisted living facilities was also apprehended.

Madigan says that this latest initiative will included the assessment of care plans for ex-convicts and resident interviews. She wants to make sure that all nursing home residents have undergone criminal background checks. The spot-checks will start next week.

Chicago, Illinois Nursing Home Negligence
Our Chicago, Illinois nursing home abuse lawyers cannot stress how important it is for assisted living facilities to make sure that any dangerous patients are kept separate from other residents. In some cases, it may be necessary to deny a patient a bed at a facility if he/she is someone with a violent criminal past who may physically assault or sexually attack another resident. A nursing home patient who was injured while staying at an assisted living facility because of Chicago nursing home abuse, neglect, or patient violence may be entitled to personal injury compensation.

Attorney General's office to step up spot-checks of nursing homes, Sun-Times, February 24, 2010

Illinois steps up nursing home safety push, Chicago Tribune, February 24, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Attorney General Home Page

Nursing Home Safety Task Force

Continue reading " Fighting Illinois Nursing Home Negligence: Attorney General Lisa Madigan Says More Unannounced Spot-Checks of Assisted Living Facilities Planned " »

The family of Steve Russell Cunningham is suing HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center of Beaumont, Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth, and Dr. Stephen B. O'Neil for his wrongful death. Cunningham, 52, died on March 15, 2008 from renal failure and congestive heart failure.

Cunningham was first hospitalized after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on December 8, 2007. At Christus, doctors placed a central intravenous line in his chest. He was then moved to the nursing home for post injury habilitation.

While at the nursing home, Cunningham became septic after developing a staph infection. On January 2, 2008, he was sent back to Christus where he was diagnosed with MRSA sepsis because his central catheter had become infected. Cunningham was then moved to the Dubuis Hospital where he received extended antibiotic therapy for a month before being sent home on February 17.

Yet Cunningham continued to experience recurrent MSRA. He was hospitalized at Christus again from septic shock.

According to the family’s wrongful death lawsuit, medical malpractice and nursing home negligence contributed to Cunningham’s death. Among the negligent acts they cite:

• Failure to properly treat an infectious disease
• Failure to properly document and report medical care
• Failure to prescribe the correct antibiotic treatment
• Failure to prescribe proper therapy
• Failure to control the infection and treat in a timely manner
• Failure to order proper tests
• Failure to remove central line to avoid infection

The family says they suffered loss of companionship, love, advice, society, maintenance, counsel, and support, as well as experienced mental anguish. They also say that they had to pay for medical and burial and funeral expenses.

Sepsis
Involves a serious infection that has entered the bloodstream. A septic patient’s blood pressure likely has become low enough that the person is in shock. Bacteria, fungus, another infecting agent, or the body’s own defense system can cause sepsis. People with weakened immune systems, such as sick persons, young babies, and elderly people, are at higher risk of suffering from sepsis. Nursing homes are places for viruses and bacteria that can cause sepsis to thrive.

Family blames Christus, HealthSouth for man's sepsis, death, Setexasasrcord.com, February 10, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Sepsis (Blood Infection), WebMD

Nursing Home Checklist, Medicare.gov

On Friday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force proposed significant changes to the way assisted living facilities treat their residents. Included in their recommendations:

• More complete screenings of prospective nursing home residents
• Transfer patients with violent histories and/or civil mental illnesses to facilities other than nursing homes that are better equipped to deal with these residents.
• Provide a care plan for each patient that can increase their chances of recovery and regaining at least some independence
• Reevaluate all seriously mentally ill nursing patients within three months (and again at six months) of admission.
• Better training for screeners so that they know that there are other, more appropriate living options out there for mentally ill patients.
• Better re-admission screening process to determine whether a patient might be a danger to others.
• Require criminal background checks earlier in the discharge process so they are completed by the time a patient is admitted to a nursing home
• Develop a system that will allow access to recent arrests, outstanding warrants, and prior convictions
• Mandate that all nursing homes who admit seriously mentally ill residents obtain certification that they are in compliance with state mental health standards

You can view the full report by clicking on the link below. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, nursing homes will likely dispute at least some of the recommendations. However, there is no doubt that changes must be made to protect residents from becoming the victim of nursing home violence, abuse, and neglect.

If your loved one was a victim of Illinois nursing home neglect or abuse, you should remove him or her from the assisted living facility immediately and contact Chicago, Illinois nursing home negligence lawyer Steve Malman to determine whether you have grounds for a case.

Task force: Change nursing home safety standards, Chicago Sun-Times, February 19, 2010

Read the Final Report, February 19, 2010 (PDF)

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Safety Task Force

Nursing Homes, Chicago Tribune

According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it is the larger, for-profit facilities and those that utilized intensive care the most during a dementia patient’s final six months that are the places most likely to insert feeding tubes. Dr. Joan Teno says that based on surveys taken by nursing home residents and dementia patients’ families, most people suffering from this mental illness would prefer dying over using a feeding tube.

Yet, earlier research shows that over 1/3rd of US nursing home patients suffering from end-stage dementia use feeding tubes. Even though evidence shows that feeding tubes don’t alleviate bedsores, allow for a longer life, or solve other issues, about 2/3rds of the tubes were inserted while the patients were in acute-care hospitalization.

Teno noted that because there are two financing systems for nursing home patients—Medicare, which pays for acute care, and Medicaid, which covers custodial care—nursing homes are more likely to send residents to hospitals where someone else will cover the bills. All of these transfers can cause a dementia patient to engage in disruptive behavior, develop bedsores, and/or suffer from eating problems, which then leads to the insertion of a feeding tube.

Feeding tubes are usually inserted through the stomach. According to Dr. Elizabeth Sampson, the lead author of another study, feeding tubes can actually increase morbidity and mortality while lowering the quality of life. Dr. Stephen Post, who is also a professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University, says that feeding tubes may even cause a person with advanced dementia to suffer because a patient who is near death will often have a gastrointestinal system that has shut down.

Nursing homes must make sure that the medical and nursing care that they provide each resident will help more than hurt them. If you believe that negligent nursing care contributed to your loved one’s injury, pain and suffering, deteriorating health, or death, do not hesitate to contact our Chicago, Illinois nursing home neglect and abuse law firm.

Too Many With End-Stage Dementia Get Feeding Tubes, BusinessWeek, February 9, 2010

Do Feeding Tubes Help Or Harm In Advanced Dementia?, Science Daily, April 20, 2009

Related Web Resources:
NINDS Dementia Information Page

Illinois Nursing Home Care Act

Journal of the American Medical Association
US Department of Health and Human Services

It does not matter whether or not medical malpractice occurred. Chicago, Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect victims have the right to demand personal injury compensation from all negligent parties if they were the victims of negligent or abusive care.

In one Illinois nursing home negligence lawsuit, a woman is suing Rosewood Care Center on behalf of Gerald Flanary’s estate. Martha Flanary says that the Edwardsville nursing home provided him with negligent care in 2003 when nursing home workers did not tell his doctor or family members that his condition had deteriorated.

Martha is accusing the Illinois nursing home of failing to properly care for Gerald and of violating the Nursing Home Care Act. She is seeking over $50,000 in damages. Martha claims that Gerald experienced great anguish and pain because of the nursing home neglect.

Chicago, Illinois Nursing Home Neglect
Failure to provide a nursing home patient with the proper care is nursing negligence. Many kinds of injuries can occur due to inadequate supervision, inappropriate nursing care, failing to help patients in need of assistance when walking, eating, or bathing, medication mix-ups, and other negligent acts.

Bedsores, sepsis, choking injuries, clogged breathing tubes, malnutrition, unexplained falls (fractures, broken hips, sprains and strains), depression, severe anxiety, emotional trauma, infections, deteriorating health, sexual assault injuries, physical assault injuries, and even death can result from nursing home neglect. Some assisted living patients who have been able to wander out of a nursing home because they were not properly supervised have become the victims of violent crimes, motor vehicle crashes, or have fatally fallen or died due to freezing temperatures.

Negligence case against Rosewood Care Center goes to trial Tuesday, The Record, February 12, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Nursing Home Care Act

Nursing Homes in Illinos

No criminal charges are going to be filed against three nursing home workers accused of using their cell phones to take nude pictures of patients. Prosecutors say that they don’t believe a crime was committed. However, the state’s department of health is still looking into the matter.

The nursing home, Kitsap Health & Rehabilitation Center, fired the employees. One of the nurses claims that although they took funny pictures of patients and sent them to one another, they did not take photographs that were inappropriate. Two of the workers have said they have been wrongly accused

Another nursing home worker reported the alleged pictures. Police say the photographs were deleted before they were able to get access to the phones.

Nursing Home Abuse
It is wrong and an act of nursing home abuse to take inappropriate and/or private photographs of nursing home patients without their consent. Unfortunately, this type of nursing home abuse has happened before. In 2007, at least three patients at Greenwood Manor were photographed in the nude. Police say it looked as if the photographs were staged. One woman spoke out when she was sent a picture of patients at the home. Her sister, a resident at the facility, was in the photo.

Last year, a nursing home received a citation because workers used their cell phones to make audio recording and take pictures of patients. The images and sounds, which were accompanied by sexual song lyrics, were reportedly taken without the patients’ permission or knowledge and sent to other nursing home workers at Pimlico Parkway. Staffers claimed that they not know what they were doing was wrong.

Also in 2009, a certified nursing assistant at Pigeon Forge Care and Rehabilitation Center was fired for using his cell phone to take photos of 12 nursing home residents in different states of undress. 47 pictures and 27 videos were taken of patients engaged in different activities.

No charges for Bremerton nursing home photos, Seattle Times, February 11, 2010

Nursing Home Employees Fired For Allegedly Taking Nude Photos Of Resident, KIRO, February 9, 2010

Related Web Resource:
National Center on Elder Abuse

USA Today says that out of every five US nursing homes, one of them will have earned consistently poor ratings for overall quality. The newspaper came up with this figure after analyzing new data from Medicare, which began giving star ratings to US nursing homes in an attempt to help nursing home patients and their families make more informed choices when choosing an assisted living facility. Having this information can be very helpful in avoiding places where Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect are already rampant.

Star ratings are awarded based on inspection reports, investigations into complaints, and other information primarily gathered from the past two years. USA Today discovered that no US state, including Illinois, was exempt when it came to having assisted living facilities that received poor ratings from one year to the next. It is also interesting to note that almost all of the nursing homes that earned one or two star ratings belonged to for-profit companies. The assisted living facilities with the lowest ratings usually had an average of 14 deficiencies each. However, Medicare is quick to note that even a nursing home that receives one star will have had to meet the federal agency’s most basic requirements.

While it is good that federal health officials have developed a rating system that provides information about each facility based on health inspection results, staffing, and quality measures, our Chicago, Illinois nursing home abuse lawyers remain convinced that there is no substitute to actually visiting an assisted living facility and personally inspecting the bedrooms, kitchen, quality of food, and living conditions. This will also allow you to watch the way patients interact with nursing home workers so that you can get a sense of the kind of attention and care your loved one might receive at a particular facility.

Too often, patients become the victims of Illinois nursing home neglect, abuse, or patient violence. Injuries, illness, and death are the unfortunate consequences of nursing home negligence.

Analysis: Poor ratings persist for 1 in 5 U.S. nursing homes, USA Today, January 28, 2010

Nursing Home Compare, Medicare

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes in Illinois

Illinois Department of Public Health

Continue reading " One Out of Five Nursing Homes Consistently Earns Poor Ratings for Overall Quality " »

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Golden Moments Senior Care Center is fighting a $50,000 fine that state officials have imposed against it over inadequate nursing care related to the choking death of an elderly patient. Adam Waeltz, 74, died on October 3, 2009.

According to the state’s inspection report, Adam Waeltz, who was developmentally disabled and had no teeth, was at risk of choking on food unless he was properly supervised and fed the proper diet, which required that certain foods be ground up. He was known for drinking and eating too fast.

Yet on October 3, Waeltz was given ham that had merely been torn into pieces. He collapsed and died at the Illinois nursing home. According to the Morgan County coroner, there were ham pieces as large as a “tangerine” in the patient’s windpipe.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is fining Golden Moments Senior Care Center because it found the assisted living facility guilty of five “Type A” violations (each one comes with a $10,000 fine) over the incident.

These are not the first fines imposed on Golden Moments. The Illinois nursing home recently agreed to pay $6,500 to settle a nursing home violation. It also originally faced a $20,000 fine for allegations that one of its nurse’s aides was being abusive toward patients. The Illinois nursing home abuse fine was later lowered. The nurse’s aide, Jessie L. Ross, was let go from the assisted living facility.

Some nursing home patients are unable to eat and drink without help or supervision. This is why nursing homes must be mindful of each resident’s dietary and nutritional needs. Failure to make sure that a patient gets all of the nutrients and liquids he/she needs or that foods are properly processed before they are given to certain residents is nursing home negligence and can prove fatal.

Jacksonville nursing home fined $50,000, BeHealthySpringfield.com, February 3, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Department of Public Health

Continue reading " Jacksonville, Illinois Nursing Home Fined $50,000 for Inadequate Care Related to 74-year-old Resident’s Choking Death " »

On Friday, federal health care officials began taking steps to end Somerset Place’s federal funding. The Chicago, Illinois nursing home has come under close scrutiny following several incidents of nursing home abuse and patient violence. Somerset tired to block the bar against federal funding with an emergency civil action, but a district court judge denied its request.

Somerset is one of the biggest nursing homes in Illinois. According to recent inspection reports by federal health care workers, patients at Somerset are poorly supervised and some of them are prone to aggression and drug use. At the end of 2009, there were 66 mentally ill, convicted felons residing among the facility’s approximately 300 nursing home residents. The Illinois Department of Public Health has cited the Chicago-area assisted living facility multiple times for violations.

Over a 15-month period, beginning April 2008, Chicago police have examined 15 alleged incidents of battery or assault, 5 cases of alleged drug possession, and 5 alleged sexual assault incidents at the assisted living facility. One patient was killed after she wandered off the premise, prostituted herself, and used crack cocaine. Other Somerset residents have also been able to walk out of the nursing home and deal drugs, beg for money, assault others, and solicit sex. According to two people that work at the Chicago nursing home, caseworkers are inadequately trained and the assisted living facility is poorly staffed.

State officials have come up with a plan to move residents.

Chicago Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
Chicago assisted living facilities are supposed to protect all of their patients from any kind of abuse, violence, or other hazards, while keeping them safe. This includes ensuring that nursing home workers are not abusing or neglecting patients, protecting residents from residents that are considered potentially dangerous, and making sure that patients do not harm themselves or go off the premise without supervision.

Troubled nursing home is losing federal money, Chicago Tribune, February 5, 2010

Nursing home loses legal fight to stay in Medicaid, Southtown Star, February 7, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Somerset Place

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Continue reading " Following Incidents of Chicago Nursing Home Violence and Abuse, Authorities Take Steps to Withdraw Somerset Place’s Federal Funding " »

According to a review reported in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, pharmacist review of meds and vitamin D supplementation can reduce nursing home falls. This is good news, considering that nursing home falls, as well as fall accidents in hospitals, are common causes of elderly deaths.

After reviewing several studies of vitamin D use in nursing homes, researchers found that nursing home residents’ chances of falling went down by 28% when they were given vitamin D every day. Seniors who had low levels of vitamin D when the study began were the ones who benefited the most. Also according to the report, seniors have a 10 times greater chance of falling when they reside at a nursing home.

Our Chicago, Illinois nursing home neglect lawyers represent patients who have been injured during nursing home falls. Unfortunately, not every nursing home does enough to prevent fall accidents from happening. Many of these fall accidents could have been avoided if only assisted living facilities and their employees had done their jobs correctly.

Common causes of Chicago, Illinois nursing home falls:

• Slip and fall hazards
• Inadequate assistance
• Malnutrition
• Poor lighting
• Lack of handrails
• Uneven steps
• Inadequate exercise program

Fall injuries can be extremely painful and debilitating and may lead to health complications and even death for an elderly or sick/frail nursing home resident.

Do NOT hesitate to explore your legal options for financial recovery.

Vitamin D reduces falls in nursing homes, review says, McKnight's, January 22, 2010

Related Web Resources:
The Cochrane Collaboration

Vitamin D, MayoClinic.com

Four nursing home patients who were allegedly victimized by former certified nursing assistants are suing nursing home operator Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society and four of the ex-nurse's aides for nursing home abuse and neglect. The alleged elder abuse is said to have occurred over a six-month period in 2008 at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea.

Former nursing home workers, Ashton Larson, Brianna Broitzman, Alicia Heilmann, and Kaylee Nash were teenagers at the time. Broitzman and Larson face 21 adult criminal charges, while Heilmann and Nash are charged with juvenile crimes. Two other former nursing workers who were allegedly involved in the nursing home abuse incidents were not named as defendants in the civil lawsuit.

The nursing home negligence complaint accuses the ex-nurse’s aids of prodding, poking, and pinching patients’ nipples, rubbing residents’ crotches, putting fingers in the patients’ mouths until they yelled, placing fingers in residents’ rectums, sitting with naked buttocks on a resident’s lap, simulating sexual activity with a patient, spitting on a resident, and spraying water on a patient. The elder abuse lawsuit claims that the ex- nursing home aides committed intentional emotional distress, civil assault and battery, as well as failed to report the abuse incidents.

The elder abuse complaint is accusing Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society of negligent retention, management, and supervision of its employees, vicarious liability, indemnification, and strict liability. The alleged victims and their families contend that the nursing home failed to fulfill a number of duties, including making sure that patients were not neglected or abused, providing them with the proper services and care, hiring, keeping, supervising workers in a manner that prevented them from mistreating vulnerable adults, and employing staffers that were competent and capable of doing their jobs.

One of the nursing home negligence lawyers in the case noted that the elder abuse incidents were not isolated events. The nursing home workers allegedly entered patients’ rooms and locked the doors. They would laugh at the victims and record them on video. The nursing home abuse lawsuit is seeking $50,000 for each of the plaintiffs for their injuries, pain, and suffering.

The former assisted living workers are accused of abusing about 15 nursing home residents. Some of these alleged victims have died. Their families may be filing civil lawsuits seeking damages.

Lawsuit alleges ‘systemic failure to exercise proper supervision’, Albert Lea Tribune, January 26, 2010

6 Teens charged in nursing home abuse, Star Tribune, December 4, 2008

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Abuse Overview, Justia

Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov

Continue reading " Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit Filed by Four Alleged Victims of Former Teen Nursing Assistants " »