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

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

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

The Danville-assisted living facilities who are disagreeing with their low rating are Danville Care, North Logan, Vermillion Manor, and Hawthorne Inn. Only two Illinois nursing homes in Vermillion County—Hopeston Community (4 stars) and Colonial Manor (5 stars)—earned more than two stars.

The nursing homes’ administrators reportedly do not know why they received such low scores. They say that major deficiencies were not cited during state surveys and any weaknesses that are identified are remedied immediately. Also, they pointed out that even if past deficiencies were corrected, they may not be reflected in the ratings right away.

Choosing an Illinois Nursing Home
While it is a good idea to gather as much information as you can about a prospective assisted living facility, nothing compares to personally visiting the nursing home. Granted, it is impossible to be 100% certain that your loved one won’t become a victim of Illinois nursing home abuse or neglect, but you can get a better sense of the conditions of the facility, the involvement of the workers’ with the patients, the type of food that the nursing home offers, and whether or not the residents are generally well-cared for and satisfied with their living accommodations.

Nursing homes dispute low marks, Behavioral Health Central, January 10, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Compare, Medicare.gov

Illinois Department of Public Health

According to government records, the 30 Chicago assisted living facilities where sexual crimes allegedly occurred were two times as likely to admit mentally ill patients and those with convicted felony records as the nursing homes that did not report such criminal activity. Many of the nursing homes where nursing home sexual violence allegedly occurred had, per the Tribune, “substandard staffing levels.”

It is also interesting to note that although Chicago police documented 27 reports of nursing home sexual assault at city nursing homes over a 1-year period, the state ombudsman’s office only investigated two sex abuse allegations during the same time period.

The fact that so many sexual assault and abuse crimes are taking place in so many Chicago nursing homes is disturbing. Assisted living facilities must not only take care of its patients’ medical and daily needs, but it is also their administrators' responsibility to run a nursing home where the residents’ are protected from becoming the victim of Chicago nursing home abuse, neglect, sexual violence, and other crimes.

Many nursing home patients are too old, frail, or mentally ill to defend themselves from any type of violence. They may be unable to comprehend that they are consenting to someone’s sexual advances. Some patients who suffer from dementia may have a hard time detailing the incidents of an assault crime. Other residents may be too scared to report what happened or may be incapable of speaking out. Meantime, nursing home workers or administrators may attempt to downplay or conceal evidence of a sexual assault crime under their watch because they do not want to deal with the consequences.

Nursing home sexual violence: 86 Chicago cases since July 2007 — but only 1 arrest, Chicago Tribune, January 12, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Department of Public Health

Nursing homes in Chicago, Illinois

These raids were at the behest of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Officers from the Cook County Sheriff’s office and Chicago police, in addition to approximately 25 federal marshals, took part in the sweep.

8 people were arrested. Two of the nursing home patients identified were too sick to leave the nursing homes. Nine of the warrants could not be enforced right away because they were issued in other jurisdictions. Police are looking for one fugitive who was not at the nursing home when the raid took place.

State officials and nursing home advocates continue to be concerned about whether Illinois nursing homes can be safe for residents when there are so many younger, mentally ill patients, some of them with felony criminal records, living among the general population in numerous assisted living facilities. As of last month, 3,326 of the approximately 92,225 Illinois nursing home residents were felons.

This dangerous segment of the nursing home patients are a threat to other assisted living patients, especially the older, frailer ones. Some nursing home residents have already become the victims of assault crimes, sexual harassment or assault crimes, and even murder.

Illinois nursing homes are supposed to keep patients with violent tendencies away from the general population and protect them from becoming a danger to themselves or others. You do have the right to sue for Chicago nursing home negligence if you believe that carelessness, neglect, recklessness, nursing home abuse, or inadequate nursing care contributed to your loved one becoming the victim of nursing home violence.

More nursing homes swept for residents wanted in warrants, Chicago Breaking News, January 26, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General

Rainbow Beach Care Center

The CMS’s warning comes following a 10-probe of the assisted living facility. The federal agency has given the Chicago assisted living facility 23 days to fix the problems. The federal government is fining the nursing home $6,050/day until the remedies are made. Meantime, the Illinois Department of Public Health has started taking steps to revoke Somerset Place’s state license. The Chicago facility is contesting the revocation decision.

A statement issued by Somerset says that its’ well-being continues to be the main priority. Managers at the nursing home are reportedly working hard to fix the deficiencies. The Chicago nursing home specializes in working with mentally ill patients.

In December, some 66 patients with felony criminal records were housed among the Chicago assisted living facility’s 400 nursing home residents. Chicago police investigated multiple cases of alleged physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and drug possession at the nursing home between April 2008 and July 2009.

One nursing home resident, Maratta Walker, was murdered after she wandered off the premise. She was able to prostitute herself and use crack cocaine while living there. Inadequate supervision that allows for violent crimes on the premise or for patients to wander off the property alone can be considered Illinois nursing home neglect.

A nursing home can be subject to citations and fines for committing violations that threaten the safety, health, and well-being of its residents. Residents that have been harmed because of such deficiencies may be able to sue the assisted living facility for Chicago nursing home negligence.

Nursing home faces possible closing, Chicago Tribune, January 20, 2010

Federal Investigators Target Troubled North Side Nursing Home, ChicagoIst, January 9, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Somerset Place, LLC
Chicago Nursing Homes, The City of Chicago

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

According to police, Markland, who has a drug addiction, cut open the patches so she could swallow the pain medication. She reportedly told investigators that she stole about seven patches.

Ellen Schrager, who is the nursing home’s chief operating officer, told police that a number of patients were missing patches. She says that at first, the nursing home thought the patches had fallen off the residents.

This is not the first time that a nursing home worker in the US has been known to steal a patient’s pain patch. Last July, a woman worked at a nursing home’s laundry room was charged with theft, elder abuse, and drug possession after she took a Fentanyl patch from a resident’s arm on six occasions over a one-month period.

In 2008, a Theresa Kim Smith, a certified nursing assistant, admitted that she stole pain patches from patients in different nursing homes. She is accused of walking into Maryville Nursing Home three times, posing as a nursing home employee, and entering patients’ rooms.

Illinois Nursing Home Negligence
Nursing homes are supposed to protect patients from theft crimes. They are also supposed to make sure that a patient is given the proper medical care at all times. A patient who is deprived pain medication may experience unnecessary pain and suffering.

Police: Woman stole painkilling patches from patients, PhillyBurbs, January 13, 2010

Nurse's aide held in pain-patch thefts in Portland area, Oregon Live, August 22, 2008

Related Web Resources:
Improving Pain Management in Nursing Homes, NLM Gateway

Nursing Home Overview, Medicare.gov

Other recommendations included:

• Searching nursing homes for patients with outstanding criminal warrants
• Increased minimum staffing requirements so that they match standards noted in federal government studies
• Expand treatment and housing options
• Transfer mentally ill residents to more appropriate treatment facilities
• Hiring more nursing home inspectors
• Retraining current nursing home inspectors about safety and care issues involving mentally ill residents
• More rigorous patient screenings to determine whether a patient is dangerous/has violent tendencies
• Imposing tougher sanctions on nursing homes that don’t complete all screening procedures

Governor Quinn set up the task force after the Chicago Tribune began providing in-depth reports on the deficiencies in nursing care provided at Illinois nursing homes. Not only do many nursing home patients have to cope with inadequate nursing care, nursing home abuse, and nursing home neglect, but patient violence has also been a growing concern—especially because so many mentally ill patients, including those who have criminal histories of violent and sexual crimes, are housed with older and frailer residents. There are more mentally ill adults younger than age 65 living in nursing homes in Illinois than in any other US state.

Chicago Nursing Home Negligence
You may have grounds to sue an assisted living facility for Chicago, Illinois nursing home negligence if your loved one was hurt or died because he/she was attacked by another patient, abused by a nursing home worker, or neglected.

Nursing home safety: Illinois task force proposes sweeping reforms to end violence at troubled sites, Chicago Tribune, January 15, 2010

New recommendations for nursing homes causing controversy, Sun-Times, January 14, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Safety Task Force

Illinois Department of Public Health

Illinois Department of Aging

Christopher was mildly retarded. Although he didn't have to be monitored all the time, Christopher had epilepsy and was known to have seizures. The 46-year-old died from drowning because of a seizure after he spent about four hours alone in a bathtub on April 26, 2009.

A nursing home aid reportedly saw Christopher go into the bathroom at around 7:30am. When she went to look in on his roommate at around 11:24am, she realized that Christopher was missing. By the time the nursing home discovered Christopher in the tub, which was full of water, rigor mortis had set in.

Joseph is alleging Illinois nursing home neglect, inadequate supervision, failure to provide round-the-clock nursing care, failure to create a nursing plan that met Christopher's care needs, failure to run a home that was in compliance with federal and state laws, failure to properly supervise nursing home residents with special needs, and failure to provide the services that should have ensured Christopher’s well-being.

Seizures
A New York Times article published in 2003 talks about the growing evidence that having a seizure can lead to more seizures, which can actually be dangerous. About 10 -15 out of 10,000 patients with severe epilepsy die annually. Seizures can also prove catastrophic if the person has one while swimming or floating in a body of water or strikes his/head on the ground or another hard surface after falling.

Illinois nursing homes are responsible for providing a plan for each patient that takes into account any health issues so that the resident gets the best care possible to ensure his/her well-being and best health while staying at the assisted living facility. Failure to provide this duty of care can be grounds for an Illinois nursing home negligence lawsuit.

Suit claims Edwardsville Terrace failed to prevent resident's drowning, The Record, January 7, 2010

Man who drowned at group home had been in tub for hours, The Telegraph, July 15, 2009

Mounting Data on Epilepsy Point to Dangers of Repeated Seizures, NY Times, February 18, 2003

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes in Illinios

Illinois Nursing Home Care Act

Neighborhood groups are even complaining that the dangerous activity at Somerset is beginning to spill into the community. One Somerset patient, Maratta Walker, was murdered four months after she was admitted to the assisted living facility.

Walker, who suffered from a seizure disorder and was mentally ill, wasn’t allowed to leave the Chicago nursing home unless she was supervised. Yet she managed to get out of the facility, prostitute herself for money and use crack cocaine. The man charged with her murder, Edward Gibson, is a bank robber that she met while wandering the streets. The two of them allegedly spent days drinking, using heroin, smoking crack, and having sex prior to her fatal beating.

Chicago Nursing Home Negligence
In the last several months, lawmakers have been investigating the dangers that can arise when housing dangerous mentally ill patients with other nursing residents. They are also examining whether or not Illinois assisted living facilities are even equipped to give mentally ill residents the care and supervision that they need to keep them and other patients safe.

The growing evidence that the current system is not working can no longer be denied. Too many residents are getting hurt or dying as a result of Chicago nursing home neglect and nursing home crimes committed by violent patients.

North Side nursing home the target of federal investigation, Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2010

Woman found dead at motel identified, ABC 7 News, May 26, 2008

Related Web Resources:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Somerset Place

While the Food and Drug Administration has approved anti-psychotic meds to treat schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, doctors can prescribe these drugs for “off-label” use. This can prove fatal, as evidenced by the deaths of three nursing home patients who were chemically restrained. The nursing home director at the assisted living facility is accused of over-drugging residents that annoyed her. Some of the patients were forced down so they could be chemically sedated. Elder abuse charges have been filed.

It is wrong to restrain a nursing home resident as a form of punishment or as a cost cutting measure. There are strict guidelines that a nursing home must abide by to determine when any kind of restraint is appropriate.

According to a recent study, about 144,000 dementia patients are given anti-psychotic drugs without just cause in the United Kingdom. Over-drugging kills about 1,800 elderly patients and nearly as many stroke victims. In the United States, the FDA attributes approximately 15,000 nursing home fatalities to unnecessary antipsychotics.

Our Chicago, Illinois nursing home negligence lawyers do not tolerate abuse of any kind. We are known throughout DuPage County, Cook County, Will County, and Lake County for helping nursing home victims and their families obtain financial recovery from negligent nursing homes.

Tighter rules sought for anti-psychotic drug use in nursing homes, Chicago Tribune, December 20, 2009

Chemical restraints killing dementia patients, Guardian.co.UK, November 12, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Citizens for Better Care

Governor Pat Quinn's Nursing Home Safety Task Force

More about these new findings can be found in the January 2010 issue of Health Affairs. Professor Mary Fennell, the sociology and community health professor who led the research, says the most shocking discovery was the difference in quality of care provided at assisted facilities that house primarily white residents compared to nursing homes that take care of a mix of Hispanic and Caucasian patients.

Fennell notes that unlike in the past when most Hispanic families would take care of their own seniors at home, financial issues and acculturation have led to an increase in the number of Hispanic elderly people now living in US nursing homes. In 2005, Hispanic nursing home patients made up 6.4% of the assisted living facility population. They made up just up 5% of US nursing home residents in 2000.

The Hispanic nursing home residents that end up living in nursing homes where the quality of care is poorer usually come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This is unfortunate, as inadequate nursing care can lead to Chicago nursing home abuse, Illinois nursing home neglect, deteriorating health, nursing home bedsores, malnutrition, dehydration, malnutrition, fall injuries, wandering-related accidents, and death.

Hispanic Elderly More Likely Than Whites To Live In Inferior Nursing Homes, Medical News Today, January 7, 2010

Elderly Hispanics More Likely To Reside In Poor-Quality Nursing Homes, Fennell et al. Health Affairs.2010; 29: 65-73, Health Affairs, January 2010

Related Web Resources:
Nursing Homes in Illinois

Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes, Nolo

According to his daughter, Margaret Whitehurst, her father weighed 237 pounds and could walk on his own with the help of a cane when they admitted him to the assisted living facility. By the time they pulled him out of the nursing home, there were “holes all over his body” and he weighed 148 pounds. Danzy suffered from Alzheimer’s.

Whitehurst and her siblings transferred their father to another assisted living facility where he died six months later, in November 2003, from an infection caused by the bedsores.

Danzy’s family was awarded $15 million for punitive damages and $3.75 for his pain and suffering. The punitive damages are partially a result of allegations that the nursing home resident touched up its records in an attempt to conceal the nursing home neglect.

During testimony, an FBI expert said that someone had gone over approximately 100 skin-check notes that received “G” ratings for good and replaced them with “B”’s, for broken, to make it appear as if the facility had not overlooked Danzy’s nursing home bedsores.

The nursing home is accused of leaving Danzy unattended for long periods of time while he was restrained to prevent him from wandering off. Per medical standards, he should have been moved every two hours so that pressure sores wouldn’t develop on his body. Instead, the nursing home is accused of moving him every four hours or waiting even longer to do so.

Nursing Home Bedsores
There are regulations and procedures that assisted living facilities must follow to prevent nursing home bedsores from developing on a patient. Many of these steps are easy to follow. If detected immediately, a pressure sore usually can easily be treated. It is when a bedsore goes untreated that serious complications can arise.

A person shouldn’t have to die because a nursing home neglected to treat his/her decubitus ulcers. The nursing home resident can sue a facility for nursing home neglect.

NYC Nursing Home to Pay $19M in Damages for Patient Neglect, Fox News, December 28, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Bedsores, Mayo Clinic

Medicare