Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Police are searching for a 79-year-old nursing home resident who failed to return to Alshore Nursing Home after leaving the premise with a man. Lidia Constantinesco walked out of the Chicago nursing home on Friday morning with a younger male companion that she identified to staff as her brother.

However, Constantinesco apparently doesn’t have a brother. She also may be suffering from dementia and is on prescribed medication for diabetes.

Chicago Nursing Home Negligence
Assisted living facilities are responsible for not only providing patients with the nursing care that they need, but also for protecting their physical safety. This means hiring nursing home staff who won’t commit Chicago nursing home abuse, neglect, or sexual assault, making sure the facility is properly maintained so that residents aren’t injured because of any safety hazards, fall ill because of unsanitary conditions or poor heating (or ventilation), become the victim of a violent crime because of inadequate security, or don't end up wandering off the premise without notice.

While it is important that a resident retain his/her right to come and go from a facility—some patients cannot do so without supervision because they may be suffering from some type of serious mental illness. If this is the case, it is definitely the job of nursing home staff to keep a patient from leaving a facility unless accompanied by staff, a trusted family member, or someone else who has permission to take the resident out.

Cops: Woman missing from N. Side nursing home may have dementia, Chicago Tribune, January 29, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Care, HelpGuide

Nursing Homes, Chicago

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Illinois trip and fall accidents can cause serious physical injuries—especially if the person who falls is an elderly senior already suffering from health issues or who has brittle bones or a weakened immune system. Recently, a relative of Anastasia J. Hubert filed an Illinois nursing home negligence complaint blaming Cambridge House of O'Fallon and BMA Management for her wrongful death.

David Hubert claims that Anastasia died from pneumonia because her health failed after she fractured her spine when she tripped and fell over a telephone cord near a nurse’s desk. David Contends that the defendants were negligent for allowing there to be a cord in a walkway, not securing it with tape, and placing a phone in an area that allowed the cord to become a trip hazard. He is seeking over $200,000 in damages.

Illinois Nursing Home Negligence
While Chicago nursing home abuse and neglect are among the most serious types of acts of nursing home negligence, allowing a premise hazard to exist at a nursing can also cause injury victims to cry negligence on the assisted living facility’s part. It is a nursing home’s responsibility to make sure that there are no hazards on a property that could cause patients to get sick, hurt, or die.

When a trip and fall is cited as a cause of Illinois personal injury , there will likely be a number of issues that will have to be addressed, such as whether the hazard was easily seen or not, or if the plaintiff could have prevented or remedied the safety issue.

Assisted living center sued after resident trips on telephone wire, dies, The Record, January 19, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes , Nolo

Nursing Homes in Illinois

The husband of 63-year-old Carol Harrison is suing Maple Ridge Care Centre for Illinois wrongful death and alleging nursing home negligence. Harrison died on August 1, 2009.

In his Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit, Thomas Harrison says that delayed diagnosis of his wife’s deep vein thrombosis resulted in the amputation of her leg, which accelerated her death. Carol was admitted to Maple Ridge just two months earlier to help her get off a ventilator following a surgery that temporarily left her in a coma. According to Thomas’s Illinois nursing home neglect lawyer, if it hadn’t been for the health complications she suffered at the assisted living facility, the grandmother of three would have gone home.

It was just this October that the Lincoln nursing home settled a state fine related to the death of another patient. Keri Daugherty died in March 2009. Maple Ridge was initially fined $10,000 for failing to resuscitate the 32-year-old, per her wishes. The case against the Illinois assisted living facility was later settled for $6,500.

Daugherty, who had spina bifida, stayed at the assisted living facility for six months. Maple Ridge’s director of nursing reportedly opted not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her because she couldn’t stand to “break up” Daugherty’s body. According to mysuburbanlife.com, Brigit Dyer-Reynolds, a watchdog for nursing home residents, has expressed concern that Illinois nursing home neglect contributed to Daugherty’s blood infection, which proved fatal.

Illinois nursing home neglect can lead to infections, health complications, bedsores, malnutrition, dehydration, fall injuries, choking incidents, sepsis, clogged breathing tubes, medication mistakes, wandering accidents, and death. You should explore your legal options to determine whether you have grounds for a Chicago nursing home abuse or neglect case.

Lincoln nursing home sued over care of resident, MySuburbanLife, January 13, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Department of Public Health

Elder Abuse and Neglect, HelpGuide

Last week, a state panel spoke strongly in favor of expanding the background checks for employees who work at Illinois nursing facilities for the developmentally disabled. Currently, while the 300 facilities that offer this type of care in Illinois are required to conduct background checks for prospective employees, only long-term care facilities for disabled children have to check with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to determine whether a job candidate had ever received citations for child abuse.

However, under new legislation being prepared by the panel, long-term care facilities for developmentally disabled adults would also have to conduct the check for past child abuse citations. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a number of state officials have already said that not only do they support this added background check, but also that they see benefits to mandating it for all care facilities, including nursing homes for the elderly.

The panel, which is made up of two dozen advocates, state officials, and industry representatives, is looking at a number of reforms, including imposing stiff fines on a nursing home that contributed to causing a patient’s death, limiting admissions at beleaguered care facilities, and classifying certain violations, such as failure to tell the state about serious incidents and not maintaining death reports, as “high risk” citations. Last year, the Chicago Tribune reported that the deaths of least 13 young adults and children at Alden Village North (and its predecessors) had involved circumstances or conditions that constituted violations.

Not only is it important that nursing home workers have the training and experience to properly do their job, but also, they must actually provide patients with needed nursing and medical care. They also must not commit any acts of Chicago nursing home abuse or neglect.

New background check proposed for employees at facilities for disabled, Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2011

Chicago Nursing Home Negligence?: Tribune Reports at Least 13 Deaths in 10 Years at Alden Village North, Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog, October 11, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

Nursing Homes in Illinois

Continue reading " Preventing Illinois Nursing Home Abuse: Panel Considers Expanding Background Checks for Workers at Facilities for Developmentally Disabled " »