Nursing Home Negligence: Assisted Living Facility Fined $100,000 Over 85-Year-Old Resident’s Fall Accidents and Fatal Head Injury
Pilgrim Haven Health Facility has been fined $100,000 for allegedly failing to prevent an 85-year-old assisted living facility resident from falling twice and eventually sustaining a head injury that proved fatal. The resident, who suffered from diabetes, dementia, and a heart condition, was supposed to get around in a walker while under the supervision of a nursing home worker. However, according to a state investigator, not only did the nursing home fail to make sure that the resident’s walker was easily accessible to him, but also they didn’t follow doctor’s instructions to install an electronic fall monitor.
The first nursing home fall accident happened last October, when nursing home workers found the man sitting on his bedroom floor after a fall accident. He sustained a scratch to his head. In December 2009, nursing home workers once again found the patient on the ground. He told them that he had fallen while using his walker.
The resident said he did not strike his head during the nursing home fall and a neurological exam did not show that there was anything wrong. Later that night, he started throwing up and turned pale. However, nursing home workers waited to tell his doctor and did not reevaluate him for possible head injuries. Also, there was no registered nurse on duty at the time.
The 85-year-old patient died the next day at the hospital. Doctors say that he passed away because the fall caused head trauma and bleeding in the brain.
With so many tools available to prevent nursing home falls from happening, assisted living facilities have no excuse for not doing everything possible to prevent such an accident from happening—especially when some patients have already proven that they are a fall risk. As evidenced by the incident above, fall accidents can cause serious injuries and death.
Los Altos nursing home fined $100,000 after man suffers fatal head injury, Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2010
Los Altos Nursing Home Fined $100K In Falling Death, KTVU, August 3, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Falls in Nursing Homes, CDC
Vitamin D may reduce nursing home falls, UPI, January 19, 2010
To determine whether you have grounds for a Cook County nursing home neglect case, contact our Chicago, Illinois nursing home fall lawyers.
